Personal and Downloaded music in mods

[Ajidica]

If I were to use some music that I payed for in a mod, would it be considered illegal? Also, if I were to use music that I downloaded legaly (to my knowledge. It was on a download site) but it was made for a movie (soundtrack), is that legal or illegal?
(Please no complaints about the music download industry and pirating stuff)

 

[cool3a2]

I'm not sure, but if you made the music totally by your own (composing, singing...), then it should be legal. If it is loaded, then it depends on the source, I'd say. Some sources allow making copies for and sharing them with relatives, other forbid all kind of copies (except of backups - no one can forbid you making copies for the case your system crashes). Thirdly, there are sites having mp3s licensed under common creatives and so on. In this case it should be okay to put them in the mod and later republish them, maybe with the restriction of giving the name of the original creator or without no changes to the mp3 at all. Normally, the webpages providing mp3s have a section with rules. You'll need to read them for each source you have loaded mp3s from as they can differ from each other.

 

[Ajidica]

I don't know where most of the music I would use came from (alot of the stuff is some old classical stuff that my dad had lying around), so if I acknowledge where I got the music, if it turned out to be illegal, I could just remove it with no legal issues.

 

[Agent327]

As far as I know copyright applies to commercial distribution.* (Though strictly speaking copying anything under copyright is illegal, unless you distribute it commercially, no legal issues should arise.) But as you say, if you know and mention sources, removing any controversial material should be simple.

*For instance, if you hire a DVD or such a message appears warning the viewer the copy is for private use only; any further distribution is illegal and constitutes piracy. (I.e. the right to copy is a right of the legal owner.) Same as with books you get from a library, etc.

 

[cool3a2]

Hmmm... don't know. In my opinion that would be okay, but I think you are allowed to share music only if you know you are allowed to and of course if it is allowed for the certain song at all.

 

[Ajidica]

I'll just use most of the stuff, and if anyone asks me to remove a song due to copyright, I'll do it. Since I'm not earning money off the music and its not cutting edge popular stuff (tracks from the 1984 version of Dune and some classical stuff such as Raphsody in Blue and Toccata and Fugue in D minor aren't on the top 100 list.)

 

[Senap]

If I were to use some music that I payed for in a mod, would it be considered illegal? Also, if I were to use music that I downloaded legaly (to my knowledge. It was on a download site) but it was made for a movie (soundtrack), is that legal or illegal?

Unfortunately it is illegal to include music in mods that you're going to make available to the public - even if you legally bought it. As mentioned by JEELEN, it's all about the distribution. You can do whatever you want with the music, as long as it stays with you.

I doubt that anyone will sue you for the works you mentioned as they aren't really as popular as say Britney Spears, or cutting edge as you said, but it would still be illegal as you don't have permission to distribute the music.

I think really old music (i.e. classical music) is considered to be in the public domain, but I might be wrong.

 

[Ajidica]

I'll just use music that I have documentation of where it came from. If someone really wants me to stop using it when I release the mod (FfH has a completly custom soundtrack, apparently for almost all of the work, they just had to give credit).

 

[cool3a2]

I think really old music (i.e. classical music) is considered to be in the public domain, but I might be wrong

That's not completely right, AFAIK. The composition itself is free, that's right. But there is still the problem that the interpreter can forbid copying his work without restrictions. That means that you don't need to worry about violating Mozarts, Beethovens and so ons rights, but the rights of the person(s) who have played the instruments or arranged the interpretation of your version of Beethovens 5th symphony.

The savest is to use mp3s that run under creative commons or something similar. I remember there were sites distributing such mp3s. Then it should be the same as for some pictures. Alternatively you could make an own record of Beethovens work, of course only if you are able to (I'm not, sorry).

 

[Senap]

That's not completely right, AFAIK. The composition itself is free, that's right. But there is still the problem that the interpreter can forbid copying his work without restrictions. That means that you don't need to worry about violating Mozarts, Beethovens and so ons rights, but the rights of the person(s) who have played the instruments or arranged the interpretation of your version of Beethovens 5th symphony.

That's what I thought. Wasn't completely sure though So I can compose my own versions of Mozart with my flashy MIDI software and get away with it

 

[Shiggs713]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I would pretty much use whatever you want and if someone has beef then kindly remove it. I seriously doubt anyone cares anyways, your not selling anything.

You can actually use 15 second cuts of any song regardless of copyright, but thats not so good for soundtracks.

if you do run into troubles, or don't feel comfortable using the free music that the rest of the world downloads for free at limewire or wherever, then there are plenty of sites that have royalty free music. Its hard to find, but its out there. For my ACW mod, nearly all music (civil war songs) were salvaged and re-recorded by the US government and put on a website, for all to use and enjoy. It really made my day when i found it, cause its pretty much perfect for my mod.

depending on what your doing, you can probably find royalty free music thats pretty good.