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« on: Feb 27, 2015, 10:27 am »
I had this occur during a rehearsal last month. I had always been told that if you don't have the rights to perform a song onstage that you can't use it. We were wanting to add a snippet of "Celebration" by Kool & The Gang into the end of a dance number; we checked with our resident A/V engineer to see if it fell into our existing licensing purchase (forgive me if I use the incorrect wordage). It didn't, and we would have had to pay extra in order to use it. BUT in the process we also learned that you can use any song at all so long as you change the words and make it clear that it's a parody, then it's free. I had no idea this was legal.
It made me wonder if anyone else had come across misconceptions about the legalities of certain aspects of our field and found them either untrue or found a giant loophole.
**Of course before taking any of our word for it, make sure you check with your theater's policies or legal department if necessary**