I'm a little confused by the term "royalty-free" in conjunction with sounds and music samples. For example, the sample-piecing program eJay presents a large number of riffs and beats that the user fixes together to form a song. It claims to be royalty-free. Does that mean that people are permitted to create works via eJay and pass them off as their own creations? What happens if an eJay becomes No. 1 on the charts? Is it legal for the artist to not mention the name "eJay" at all? Also, when composing for films and games, do the sample libraries and VSTs used need to be acknowledged? I've only ever seen that happen once, but I'd just like to confirm it. Finally, we come to sound effects. What exactly is "allowed"? When sounds are used from a sample CD, must that be acknowledged? Does it mean that you are not really the sound designer after all, or is the sound designer's real job both to find and create sounds? Is it permitted to use other people's sound effects, e.g., cars starting up, from the Internet and use them, or do they need to be contacted and credited for it? Thanks in advance.

Royalty-free really means you don't have to pay each time you use it. That's apart from the original acquisition fee. If I buy a volume from the Hollywood Edge SFX library, I don't have to pay per usage of it's contents. I've already bought one blanket license that is "royalty-free" that gives me complete control of it's usage. The same goes with music and certainly with programs like eJay.

Now the sub-clause with that is from time to time acquiring the license also binds you to mention that you used it in projects. I haven't seen too many formal things like that. Certainly open-source content like that from places like the Freesound project stipulate that you need to mention authors in any projects you use audio from. Again, in the case of sample libraries and soft-synths I haven't come across it, but if it asks for recognition then you said yes (when you bought it!)

A Sound Designer can just, if he or she wants to, just pull off SFX off a library, rename it for the project and call it good. Personally I think that's kind of cheap and I don't think someone who relies solely on this method to go very far in this industry. Now a lot of us don't have access to explosions or guns, but all you need is a good microphone, a portable recorder, a quality set of headphones and the tenacity to craft and the ability to think sideways in some cases.

Hopefully I answered your questions and then some...sorry if I started rambling!

Tony

Thanks for the excellent answer, Tony! You're right in saying that not all of us possess large libraries of explosions (to paraphase). I wouldn't want to rip off other people's sound effects even if it was legal, but it's not always practical to produce everything oneself. Just one last question: recognition of the original author is required, but is their permission also necessary?

e.g., if I'm planning on using a sample from Freesound, do I need to contact the author to let them know?

Just out of interest, has anyone ever been sued because of plagiarism of sound effects? Is there a way to prove that a sound effect has been stolen? Heh, is it even worth it?

In fact...can sound effects be copyrighted? o_0