A game I'm working on is nearing completion, and, having already bought some custom music, I realize I now need sound effects. Searching GameDev, the site Flashkit.com has been repeatedly recommended in threads, so I'm looking at that. My confusion lies with the licenses of, well, anything. There's a possibility I'll release my game commercially, which complicates things. The sound effects I'll be downloading have a license of 'Freeware', and the site says:

Quote: Usage Guidelines If you download a freeware FX, you may use it in your presenations as you see fit. As a courtesy it's nice to thank the creator of the loop, and include a link to them.

Okay, cool. But at the bottom of the page, it says this:

Quote: FX are royalty free for your use, but all rights remain with the author, ie. you can use them, but not resell them! If you feel copyright is being infringed please email us immediately

Now, this last message makes two seemingly conflicting statements. It's 'royalty free', which I thought meant I can use commercially without paying, but at the same time, I'm told I can use them, 'but not resell them'. Are they trying to say I can't resell the individual sound effect, but I can use it in commercial games? The artists of the sound effects have their emails listed with the sound files, so it just occurred to me that I should email them personally and ask them for permission to use their work, but I still want to know what the webpage means, by not letting me resell them, since I'll still be downloading them from that site. Many people here must have dealt with these issues before, so how did you deal with sound effects? Music and art is more clear-cut to me; the music I hired a composer to make, and I made the art myself. Thank you for any light you can shine on this matter.

The sound effects (on their own) are distributed as Freeware and you are allowed to use them royalty free in your project and they can be distributed in your project. What you can't do is download the FX and then sell them (on their own) to someone else.

As part of a project fine - as stand alone FX not allowed.

Thank you, Obscure. That's exactly what I wanted to know. [smile]

To be clear you can use them in your project - in accordance with the terms of license - but not sell them in stand alone form.

I haven't read the license so I don't know if it allows for them to be used in a commercial project or only in a free game. You will need to ensure that your usage meets with the license requirements.