In the light of Google closing down music blogs, AKA #musicblogocide2K10, I got to thinking about the ongoing question of how to “stay legal” on your blog – and a quick easy solution came to me: ADD THE LICENSE!
I think it's called Irony ....
Really, its simple. If your favorite band allows you to use a track on your blog, copy the communication that says “Hey it’s cool”, paste it into a simple text file and link to it at the end of the post! Simple! If you really want to get fancy you could code in a “Custom field ” into wordpress with specific coding for the license text size, etc.
But the bottom line is, regardless of whether your’e reviewing major label music or creative commons material, by adding that link to the end of the posts, you’re covering yourself against possible takedown requests by the DMCA. Also you’re giving a subtle message that “Hey i’m a credible and above board “citizen journalist” that bands, labels and fans alike can trust to use content in a responsible manner!” Plus if the link is styled properly andf always uses the same 1-2 words, you can pretty much guarantee that it wont detract from the otherwise cool nature of your blog.
Here’s an example of how easy it is to add a fair use license to the bottom of your posts:
Use License
