Posted in The Belly Dance Geek Clubhouse

Geek Out with Valerie Lovely

Copyright for Belly Dancers

Episode 10 of the Belly Dance Geek Clubhouse:
My guest, music attorney Valerie Lovely will talk about music copyright concerns for belly dancers. We’ll also be joined by paralegal and dancer Joie Grandbois (Selcouth).

Whether you perform, teach, produce videos, or just want to post your hafla performance on YouTube, there’s something here for you!

Note: Copyright law varies from country to country, and Atty. Lovely can only address US copyright law. The general concepts are universal, but the specific details we cover only apply to dancers operating in the US. (Although if you sell DVDs to the American market, you’ll need to know this, regardless of where you live.)

You’ll learn:

What copyright is
When you need permission to use a work (or not!)
How to license music
Who is responsible for licensing music when you perform or teach
Licensing concerns for video: from YouTube to DVDs to rehearsal videos
Licensing concerns for Skype classes

(And a LOT more!)

We’ll also have some discussion time, so you can ask Attorney Lovely your questions.

About Attorney Lovely

Attorney Valerie Lovely has been a musician for most of her life. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Attorney Lovely earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music in Boston. She plays several instruments, has performed in rock bands, chamber groups, wind ensembles, and on studio projects. She has composed music in various styles for use in a variety of media. She understands musicians and artists because she is one herself

Attorney Lovely represents a wide variety of clients including musicians, event producers, dancers, and filmmakers. She believes the client is best served when provided with an understanding of how the music and entertainment industries work, and a basic knowledge of how to protect their rights. She uses plain and direct language to explain legal concepts and contract terms in a way that is clear to those who may not be experienced in the music and entertainment industries.

Attorney Lovely speaks around New England about the legal aspects of the music industry at events, and to legal and industry organizations. She has spoken at events sponsored by The American Bar Association and Berklee College of Music, Suffolk Law School, the Massachusetts Bar Association, University of New Hampshire School of Law, and the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in Massachusetts and Maine.

She teaches music law and music business at Berklee College of Music and Berklee Online and has provided instruction at the Intellectual Property Summer Institute (IPSI), The Business of Music summer program, The Recording Artist Project (RAP) at Harvard Law School, and for the Arts & Business Counsel’s Musician’s Professional Toolbox. She was also a guest speaker in Copyright Law courses at the University of New Hampshire School of Law and Suffolk University Law School.

About Joie

Joie Grandbois (Selcouth) is a writer, dancer and performance artist who lives in Portland, Maine. A lifelong dancer, she entered the world of belly dance seven years ago through the side door of raqs gothique after falling in love with its dramatic story telling nature. Since then she has also studied cabaret and Turkish styles of the dance which only made her fall more deeply in love with the art form. She finds her inspiration in stories from mythology and folklore with a particular love for the Brothers Grimm, as well as tales of personal transformation. She is a percussionist in training and loves, yes loves, to play the zils.

For the past five years Selcouth has been mistress of Dark Follies, a gothic vaudeville inspired variety show troupe based in Portland, Maine and she is also co-founder of Raq Resurgam, Portland’s monthly community belly dance night. Selcouth performs around New England with Dark Follies and as a solo artist. She teaches Theatrical and Experimental Belly Dance at Bright Star World Dance in Portland, Maine.

In 2006 she earned her associates degree in paralegal studies and in that same year she sat for, and passed, the National Association of Legal Assitants certified paralegal exam. She met Attorney Lovely in 2011 when she encountered issues with obataining music rights for a Dark Follies stage show after which she brought Attorney Lovely to Portland to lead a workshop on copyrights for performers. They enjoyed working together so much that they decided to make the arrangement more permanent. It turned out to be a legal match made in heaven and the rest is history.