Changing Software to meet Copyright Law

[Rosie Wood]

I've been looking at copyright laws quite a lot this month and in the end I had to redesign the product so that it adhered to the copyright laws.
As a start up business there is no way I could afford a copyright lawyer and I have no inclination to provide a pirating service. The game I produce is not designed for a mass market and would be a one user product. Buying a copy of an MP3 for each product sold, would not have bothered my conscience very much as the artist would be getting a fee for their work, which they would owe to the game.
Having to apply for copyright permission for a different piece of music would have made the delivery process impossible to manage in a timely fashion. Permission to use the lyrics would have required a different application for permission and could have cost over £300 for every copy of the game. As a copy of the game which requires me to do hours of work and only costs £50 it became obvious that providing a couples favourite song in the game would not be an option.
I redesigned the game, so the customer can choose any music they already own, on their own hard drive, as a background to the photo display. Instead of lyrics the game now displays the details of the wedding and the photo being displayed.