I have recently took it upon myself to start developing a game as my latest project, and I am interested in putting music in my game such as EA does with the Need For Speed series, NBA 06 etc.

The question I have is, would it be illegal to distribute a game (it will not be used for commerical purposes) that has music made by artists, downloaded from the internet (legally). I see so many YouTube videoes that certainly wouldn't have explicit permission from the producers of the song, so would that be applicable in a game?

If not, I have been looking at download.com's music downloads section, and they claim they are Free MP3's. Would that be a safer option?

Thanks .

Well, this is another one of those cases where you'd be better served by a lawyer...what follows is entirely opinion, and should not be considered sound legal advice.


As far as I understand it, downloading or otherwise purchasing music legally only gives you the rights for that music for your own personal usage (i.e. listening to it). To be able to redistribute it, you would need either ownership of the rights to the music (created yourself, commissioned the work, or have purchased the rights), or permission of the holder of the rights to said music. If you've found something freely and legally distributed, check the license agreement or similar documents - these should tell you whether you are allowed to redistribute.

And for the youtube thing - I think that at any time any artist/rights holder could sue to have the media removed and for compensation for copyright infringement (copyright infringement claims at youtube.com). However, since the quality of the videos/music on that site is usually so reduced compared to a CD or downloaded file, it just serves as advertising for the artist - it's enough to tell whether you like the music, but not a high quality listening experience.

So in short - just be sure. If it's music you purchased, chances are you won't be able to use it. If it's freely and legally distributed, check the license to see what kind of rights you have with it.

Thanks for your prompt, straight to the point reply.

The music on CNet's Download.com isn't zipped with any sort of licence information in the download (rather just the MP3 encoded file). I was looking around the site for a while trying to find any sort of information about my rights to use the music, but nothing seems to shed some light.

I wouldn't be able to get a lawyer as I am still contemplating pursuing the project or not, but with that said I don't have one anyway, and my dad certainly wouldn't give a crap. So, this is more so for personal education.

I saw this article here (click), and it talks about the term fair use. In the game development class I was in, the teacher talked about using music in your games were legal as it was for educational purposes, and I am guessing the music available at Download.com isn't royalty free, so it would come under personal use.

So, hyperthetically, if I were using the music for personal, educational purposes (as in, my own personal learning), and only distributed it in a school environment, where we can't play violent games, would the legality still be questionable?

I think it would be fine as long as you don't make money off of it. Would you like someone to sell your games and not give you any notice or profit they made. But thats just my opinion.

This is a good example of what will happen.

My teacher Mr. Riti who is the TV productions teacher at my school put a show on the public access tv channel and someone used Bon Jovi music in the video. Later that week, Bon Jovi showed up at our school because he lives about 5 minutes away. Well Bon Jovi decided he wouldn't make a big deal out of it and simply cursed him off. we can't use copyrighted music anymore in class

Use public domain music and you can do whatever you want.

If no license is specified, don't use it. Doesn't matter what it is, the lack of a license is not the same thing as something being public domain.

This post has been edited by Tom9729: 7 Feb, 2008 - 04:19 PM

Unless it is used to make money, then I am pretty sure you won't have a problem. I would contact the artists and make sure though... I am a musical parodist and have to do that sometimes... Like with the Five Man Electrical Band... Anybody remember them? I got to contact Les, really nice guy. He let me parody the song "Signs". Yeah, get permission with the artists.

I have an idea: why not get smaller artists to give you music? They'll want to give it to you because it helps them get their name out there, and you'll then have music that you're free to use in your game.

I can't find any proper sites that are dedicated to public domain music.

@girasquid: I've been thinking about this.
@Rammer124: Yeah it won't be used to make money, I was planning on releasing open source under the GPL licence. I just don't want anybody to be able to sew me of everything that I possess because I committed copyright infringement.

Anyway, I have abandoned this project I'm sorry to say. I had to redo it too many times to be happy with it, and still failed to get the positioning right for resizeable forms.

Looks like I should have been looking at C++ / DirectX or OpenGL ages ago.

This post has been edited by RodgerB: 22 Feb, 2008 - 04:19 AM

soundclick

a couple of the tracks on their will be copyrighted, but atleast its easier to speak to the artist's themselves.

in particular KG87's Tracks

are all copyright free and i dont mind people using them if they pay me kudos

This post has been edited by KG87: 8 Mar, 2008 - 12:51 PM

If you're looking for some independent music for an independent game I would be more than happy to share what I have with you.

Here is my topic on cheap music maybe this will help

http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=60545