No Audio/Video Recording of any kind is permissible at any IBO, Approved Provider, or Amway event.
WHY?
Once you decided to start your own Independent Business – you entered into a commercial business. By engaging in this commercial activity, you take on new responsibilities relative to your use of music and videos, whether on social media or at any type of IBO gathering.
If you copy, distribute, or in any way use materials that are created by someone else, without proper written permission (such as a license), the owner of the IP may assert infringement claims (A LAWSUIT) against you, your AP, and even Amway.
Damages for copyright infringement can be as much as $150,000 per infringement.
Remember, just because you can find it on the Internet, including Social Media Platforms, does not mean you can use it.
LET’S BREAK IT DOWN
Music and Videos
Music and videos routinely contain a bundle of exclusive rights – commonly referred to as “copyright rights” – that may be owned by one or more copyright holders.
Copyright holders own the exclusiverights of reproduction, adaptation, public distribution, public display, and the digital sound recording transmission right associated with a given copyright work of authorship.
Copyrighted music may not be used in any way in connection with your business unless you first obtain a written license (permission) from all relevant copyright owners. This is a complicated and potentially expensive process, so the easier course of action is “don't”.
Amway™ has a library of licensed music that is available to IBOs. We strongly encourage you to use Amway’s library of licensed music, which you can freely access on amway.com.
Videos, by their very nature of combining images and sound, often raise complicated copyright issues as well.
Relevant copyright owners could include the videographer who created the video, the owners of any copyrighted works within the video, including the script or staging of the action, photos or other works of art appearing in the video, and the owner of any music and sound recordings in the video.
To put it simply – if you didn’t create it, don’t use it and at best you need to get permission from the owners to use it. Please see the Intellectual Property Best Practices Message for more information.
Social Media Platforms
Copyright owners strictly enforce their protected work in music, videos, and on all social media platforms. Do not post anything on YouTube® with copyrighted music and do not share any videos in any way (Twitter®/Facebook®/Instagram®/Snapchat®/Tik Tok®/email or at IBO gatherings) that contain copyrighted music or other copyrighted works. To be clear, this includes any music offered by the above social media platforms as well.
Those social media platforms do not have the right to offer copyrighted music for use by IBOs.
You may hear licensed music at IBO events. The rights for that music to be played at functions is paid for by the IBOAI®. However, we are NOT permitted to record that music in any fashion – either by the A/V team that is hired or by any member of the audience. In addition, many state laws protect the publicity and privacy rights of people who appear in the videos (sometimes referred to as the right to a person's “name and likeness”). While you may often hear about these rights in connection with celebrities, non-celebrities have similar rights as well.
Virtual Meetings
Since virtual meetings are now commonly used, the same set of rules for those functions apply.
No audio/video recording of any kind is permissible at any IBO, Approved Provider, or Amway event.
No popular music can be used at those events at all because they are displayed over the web and are not covered by the music rights purchased by the IBOAI.
Remember, Amway™ has a library of licensed music that all IBOs can freely access – and all IBOs are strongly encouraged to use it.
For further information – go to the IBOAI® website and see the rules and guidelines on music and copyrights. Also [insert language about Amway’s music] and Amway’s Resource Center.
This Best Practices Message gives you a few highlights or reminders – but can’t cover everything you need to remember, so you may want to review the appropriate Rules of Conduct for the further and complete information.