I'm making an intro video for my scenario, which is almost done. I want to use the music from the Star Wars Main Theme. So far, from what I have researched, I cannot use this song and post it here, even for free. Unless I find something official that states that I can use this song, I will err on the side of caution and keep it out of the video. Does anyone who has added music to their mod or scenario know of any law saying that I can use this? Thanks.

Laws vary from place to place, of course. However it is better to be safe, as you suggest. As a rule of thumb, if a track is already available for free (I mean legally, perhaps as a free download somewhere) then there are unlikely to be problems with using it. But if it's just on a CD that you bought then it's safer not to.

Ehh, just don't use the entire track and assume it falls under fair use (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Fair_use_under_United_States_law) for nonprofit educational purposes :mischief:

I've been assuming that in making a soundtrack available for my mod, which is by no means making me any money (indeed, if you look at the money making ventures I could be undertaking in the time I dedicate to modding...:mischief:), that I am covered from any but the most evil of copyright lawyers. I hope that if one of the (properly credited) original artists objected then they would contact me first and ask for the material to be removed rather than taking me straight to court.

And thanks to Weasel Op for the link. Useful I think.

Keroro, copyright has got nothing to do with profit. If I were to scan in the entire text of a book and put it online for free then I would make nothing out of it but I'd certainly be infringing the author's copyright, and it would be detrimental to the author because no-one would buy the thing if they could just get it online. The same thing applies to music. Whether you make money out of it is neither here nor there; what matters is whether you're potentially reducing the author's (or whoever's) profits. And if you make it freely available then you're clearly doing that.

Of course, whacking a legally dubious track into the soundtrack of a Civ scenario is unlikely to be noticed by many lawyers or artists anyway, even if it's illegal; so it's up to you what you do. However, CFC won't host anything of dubious illegality, irrespective of whether you're likely to get into trouble over it or not.

I think your best bet, is to try to find a site where the track is hosted for free, and include the link with a "Music patch"...so that people can d/l the music if they want it, and you can avoid legal issues...

Plotinus, and all, thanks for the input. I think I'm gonna not use the SW theme, although folks can mix it in if they want (assuming they have it). It's too bad, because it's the perfect song for this movie. You'll know why when you see it. I do have an alternate song in mind that should work that is in the public domain.

Plotinus - fair point. Thankyou. That's why you're a modern modding mod I guess. :) I did actually have a link to some music from CFC, (not hosted on CFC) that I've removed now. I'll try to find some alternatives from free sites.

Do you know how many websites, fan games and other crap they don't tell you about have the Star Wars theme? Thousands, I guarantee. A small fan-made mod for a relatively unpopular game (i.e. not Halo or even Civ 4) can have at least a clip from a universally known piece of music without any threat of legal fallout. But that's just my opinion, ;).

http://www.moviewavs.com/Movies/Star_Wars.html

http://www.dockingbay101.com/music/

Imperial March (http://www.emp3world.com/mp3/61440/Star%20Wars/Imperial%20March)

Music from Star Wars video games (http://downloads.khinsider.com/star-wars)

Plotinus - fair point. Thankyou. That's why you're a modern modding mod I guess.

Being an author makes you sensitive to such matters!

I have trouble with music too and the problem is I can't find a legitimate way to contact artists to get their music for a fee.

Someone ought to create a post on public domain sites with royalty free good music or places you can turn to to get music from artists at a reasonable fee.
I turned to a few artists and they didn't seem to bother much. I don't see why I have to pay thousands if it's only a free mod.

And Ka-el's mod Fall from heaven for Civ 4 has music that can be considered copyrighted(though it might be after permission) from games like Arcanum that clearly have nothing to do with his mod.

I think a link were the users can get the music for a free download is not unreasonable, in ones mod, provided you mention something like " I think it would sound great with x music which you can find and listen to here, but unfortunately it's not royalty free so I cannot included here"