The Steel Guitar Forum

There have been a lot of videos of famous steel players posted on YouTube. Some of these have been posted without the player's knowledge or permission. This may or may not be legal, but it's certainly a breach of common courtesy.

If you intend to post a video of a steel player, please take the time to get the player's permission.

Home-made videos are intended for home viewing. Broadcasting them to the world should require a "release" from the player. While you may or may not be technically "legal" in posting the video, you should secure permission out of respect for the player. It's the right thing to do.

Thank you for posting this Bob.
I have countless hours of video of almost every famous player. Some have asked that I not post video of them and I have honored that request.

I have talked to each and every player (except the deceased) before I posted a video. Most of the time I have even let that player see the video prior to uploading to YouTube for the public to view.

The reason some do not want any video of themselves posted is because they feel they may not have been at their best at a steel show. There is a lot of pressure there and mistakes are made. I don't mind hearing mistakes, but I understand why a player would not want them made public.

Plus the quality of the video and/or audio on these video's is not always up to par, so that is just another reason to be sure it is OK before posting any video.

I am enjoying posting video for the world to see and will keep them coming as long as the players agree. I think it can do nothing but help our beloved instrument for the world to see the greats in action.

And thank you Bob for allowing us a place to gather online and share all this material.

Bill Ferguson

Great Post, and a like wise wonderful thoughtful reply in a civilized manner. Thanks to both of you! Ray and many more I know will share these thoughts.

I've taken the 2 home video's off MySpace.
In my enthousiasm I wanted to share these great performances
with the steelguitar fans.
Btw both players knew the video's as I've e-mailed them a copy. But never asked permission to put them on my personal MySpace. Meanwhile I got permission from one of them.



Sorry for this,

Ted

I may just be opening up a can of worms, but it ain't the first time!
If I could play like PF,Beavers, Emmons, Hughey,White,Elliott, and the rest of the Nashville pickers, including the great players from Texas and any other state, I would be most happy that someone would listen to me play.
Listening to "Steel on the Web" is one of my favorite parts to read and listen to. I wished that some of the "big boys of the steel" would post their opinion if they want to be heard or not.
I think that a lot of the new players would enjoy hearing to the players they hear about. My unbiased opinion. Feel free to cuss me if you want to or email me, I can take it.........

This announcement was not made because of player complaints. It was made to remind people that it's a common courtesy to ask someone's permission before broadcasting their work.

You may disagree, Tommy, but I'm not going to allow any more debate on the issue. As a last word on the subject, I'll also remind everyone of the wording from the Forum Membership Agreement:

If you post music or other copyrighted material in this public forum, the liability is yours. The system operators will remove any postings at the request of a copyright holder if there appears to be a copyright violation. Lacking such a request, we assume that the person posting the material has secured permission to do so.

'Nuff said. Topic closed.