American Idol and Copyrights

Each week, the contestants on Fox's American Idol perform copyrighted musical works under license from the copyright owners. This past week, contestants Taylor Hicks, Chris Daughtry, Elliot Yamin and Katharine McPhee performed songs from Elvis' catalog. Often, the judges complain to the contestants about their song selection. But how many choices do the contestants really have? It is rumored that many popular songs are off limits to the contestants because they fall outside of Fox's licensing budget. Many popular songs by Michael Jackson, The Beatles and Shania Twain are reported to be off-limits to contestants.

American Idol has many episodes where they showcase the song catalogs of a single artist. This season alone, whole episodes have been dedicated to artists such as Barry Manilow, Stevie Wonder, Elvis and Queen to name a few. This leads us to wonder if copyright owners reduce their licensing fees for the publicity they receive from their images, personalities and songs being broadcast to millions of television viewers. Seems like a fair trade between Fox and the copyright owners. Too bad the contestants get stuck singing Manilow songs like "Copa Cabana" to millions of teenagers. For a complete list of songs performed on American Idol, click here! Notice all of the repeats.