BTMusic and E! TrueHS

[Villavic]

Most of the E! True Hollywood Story shows I've seen, doesn't play original songs of their stars. Last Night I saw Cher's. I missed her songs. And at their respective ETHS, I have not heard songs from Village People, Michael Jackson, etc

However they always include originals song at the Behind the Music specials (Cher, Boy George, Stevie Nicks, etc)

I know there's a matter of coyprights but, does E! Online (or the tv company) has a particular problem with artists?

[hayley]

Behind the Music specials were always done with the permission of the artist, or if the artist was deceased, the permission of their family or executors. That's one of the reasons that they've always been so good- they're done with the full cooperation of the artist, nearly always with great artist interviews, and music and rare clips that are given over w/ the artist's permission.

Generally, E! True Hollywood Stories are unauthorized, and generally the subjects do not allow the licensing of their material for them.

The specific copyright is a synchronization right, which allows for permission necessary when synching a copyrighted material to a movie, television show, music video, etc.

I remember watching the E! True Hollywood Story on MTV's The Real World and thinking how silly it was that they were unable to get permission to use any actual Real World FOOTAGE from MTV. Like, they'd talk about the fights and be like "and then there was DRAMA between Melissa and Dan" and would have to cut to cheesy publicity shots of the two.