If a newsvideo wants to use a portion of a recorded work to help illustrate a story, like a snowman song for a snowy day, what is the copyright law? Can the news organization use a sample from a recorded work, or must they have written permission of the copyright owner? News is produced daily and there is no time to go through a lengthy copyright approval process. That is why this is an important question. Please answer this if you know the answer. Don't fudge it. Nobody signs contracts with record labels to use songs; they take out an ASCAP license.

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If the audio sample is recognizable, they news organization must secure the copyright. They probably have contracts with record labels so they can play their songs and the label gets the cut.

Of course they must have a written permission of the copyright owner. In the case of a well known song composer here in the Philippines his song was use in a commercial ad. He sued the company that used his song without his permission even only the tune and a little lyrics. I have no idea about this in America. Maybe it is just the same.