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Mother ()
Mother: a song written and recorded by John Lennon - The song is used under the film’s opening credits to set a tone for the film and accompany a photo montage.
See more videos in "Refrigerator Mothers - Purchased Clips."
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NOTES: This element illustrates the need to try multiple avenues in licensing works and the luck often involved in succeeding. The song was under our titles and clearly was not an easy fair use claim. However, as we really wanted to use the piece and feared that the licensing fee would be prohibitive, we decided to pursue multiple avenues for permission.
ACTION: We requested permission to use this song from Sony ATV Music Publishing on several occasions and on each attempt were denied on the grounds that none of John Lennon’s music is ever licensed and if it were, it would be too costly (in the hundreds of thousands of dollars under title credits) for a non-profit documentary film production. On a whim, we mailed a copy of the demo, in which we used the song under title credits, to Yoko Ono at her residence in New York City. Within a week or so, a fax came back saying “Mrs. Lennon wants you to have to the song.” We then received official word from her attorney that we were granted permission to use the song and the negotiations began.
They initially offered us a severely discounted licensing fee of $15,000, however this was both too high for our budget and double what we had paid for other music rights. If we paid Sony $15,000 we would have to pay the same for the other pieces of music we were licensing under a “most favored nation” clause in our contracts with them. We had to write back to Sony ATV and say that we could only pay the $7,500 that we had paid others. They agreed and we were able to use the song.
ACTION: We requested permission to use this song from Sony ATV Music Publishing on several occasions and on each attempt were denied on the grounds that none of John Lennon’s music is ever licensed and if it were, it would be too costly (in the hundreds of thousands of dollars under title credits) for a non-profit documentary film production. On a whim, we mailed a copy of the demo, in which we used the song under title credits, to Yoko Ono at her residence in New York City. Within a week or so, a fax came back saying “Mrs. Lennon wants you to have to the song.” We then received official word from her attorney that we were granted permission to use the song and the negotiations began.
They initially offered us a severely discounted licensing fee of $15,000, however this was both too high for our budget and double what we had paid for other music rights. If we paid Sony $15,000 we would have to pay the same for the other pieces of music we were licensing under a “most favored nation” clause in our contracts with them. We had to write back to Sony ATV and say that we could only pay the $7,500 that we had paid others. They agreed and we were able to use the song.