Hi, I would like to put music by commercial artists into my game. I don't plan to sell the game, maybe distribute it via inet, friends and such, but not for comercial purposes. Can I put that music in withought any persmission or do I still have to get one. I ofcourse bought all the music legally and have the CDs. (In case there is confusion as to what a commercial artist is, I mean people like Radio Head, Guns & Roses etc. the ones that sell their music) Thank you.

No. This is more or less the same as distributing the music through a torrent/whatever p2p program is popular at the time. On the back of the CD's I'm sure it says that you are not allowed to distribute without permission. i.e. on the back of one of my CDs it says "Unauthorized duplication or rental is a violation of applicable laws."

Quote: Original post by Jroggy
No. This is more or less the same as distributing the music through a torrent/whatever p2p program is popular at the time. On the back of the CD's I'm sure it says that you are not allowed to distribute without permission. i.e. on the back of one of my CDs it says "Unauthorized duplication or rental is a violation of applicable laws."

But how come we see people putting that music on youtube for their videos, Isn't that the same? I also remember seeing non commerical games that came with copyrighted music, for example if you ever played Plasma Pong, the author uses the song Pompei, by E.S Posthumous. And what if I only make the game for myself? What if I give that game to my friend, after all I could give my CD that I bought to someone without violating the copyright, right?

> But how come we see people putting that music on
> youtube for their videos, Isn't that the same?

It doesn't make it more legal. They simply haven't been sued yet; maybe they never will, but that's a risk they are taking.

The music on CDs is intented for personal entertainment. Many jurisdictions and music publishers will enforce this to various degrees. Just check what's going on in Canada; you would think playing a CD in a hair salon or a dentist office for the benefit of customers is innocuous? Think again. Even if you paid for the CD already, you need to pay a yearly fee for *commercial purposes*.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070720.whair0720/BNStory/National/home

http://www.socan.ca/jsp/en/music_users/copyright_intro.jsp

Quote: Buying a CD or other recording only gives you the right to listen to it in private. The public performance of these musical works is subject to copyright law and therefore requires a SOCAN licence.

-cb

Quote: Original post by VanillaSnake21
But how come we see people putting that music on youtube for their videos, Isn't that the same?

It's illegal when they do it too, and they could potentially get in trouble (ranging from just having the videos removed to being sued for compensation) for it. I don't know any examples of legal action actually being taken in the case of videos like that (although it's not uncommon for them to be removed at request) but that doesn't mean it can't potentially happen at some time in the future.

Quote: I also remember seeing non commerical games that came with copyrighted music, for example if you ever played Plasma Pong, the author uses the song Pompei, by E.S Posthumous.

If he doesn't have permission he could potentially be sued for that as well; and I'll note that the game is currently unavailable due to running afoul of Atari's trademark on the name "Pong". Again, just because some people have been getting away with it doesn't mean they will continue to do so indefinitely, and doesn't mean that it's legal or that you can get away with it.

Quote: after all I could give my CD that I bought to someone without violating the copyright, right?

You can give (or sell) it to them legally, but you can't copy it for them. Giving a CD to someone isn't the same as what you're suggesting.


The fact that your game isn't for profit makes absolutely no difference legally (except perhaps that if you do happen to get sued that amount would probably be less).

As others have said, what you propose is copyright infringement and is illegal

Quote: Original post by VanillaSnake21
...What if I give that game to my friend, after all I could give my CD that I bought to someone without violating the copyright, right?

You can give the CD you bought as a gift. You can't make copies of the CD, keep the original for yourself and give the copies to friends. That is copyright infringement. Same with your game, it would include copies of the music you have and distributing those would be illegal.

Thanks for the replies one more question though, I understand it's illegal to distribute, but what if I keep it for myself, afer all reproduction of audio you own, soley for the purposes of personol listening is legal as I understand (ITunes, iPod etc)? And also, lets say in the future I do want to release the game, is this SOCAN licence cbenoi1 was talking about required? If so how can I get it and what's the approximate cost I would have to pay the artists per song? Thanks

Well, lets put it this way, for an independent game to put music of the caliber you are talking, it will be prohibit ably expensive. tens of thousands of dollars. And no, the license they are talking about it necessary for playing music commercially (which is pretty lax in the states actually). In order to DUPLICATE the artists music, you must contact the artist or their public head and state what you want to use it for. It could be anywhere from a couple grand to a million or two depending on the song, the game quality, exposure, chance it will get them to buy a CD, etc.

Is it possable to allow the user to use music in their own library instead? if you dont actualy include the music in your release, you will be fine.

Quote: Original post by Obscure
As others have said, what you propose is copyright infringement and is illegal

Quote: Original post by VanillaSnake21
...What if I give that game to my friend, after all I could give my CD that I bought to someone without violating the copyright, right?

You can give the CD you bought as a gift. You can't make copies of the CD, keep the original for yourself and give the copies to friends. That is copyright infringement. Same with your game, it would include copies of the music you have and distributing those would be illegal.

This varies between jurisdictions actually, in Sweden it is legal to give a small number of copies of CDs, movies, etc to family members close friends, (In return the music and movie industry gets a portion of the revenue from blank cds, dvds, casettes, etc), The only exceptions are books and computer software (Personal backup copies are legal as are partial copies of books).

This made for example downloading of music from filesharing networks perfectly legal(Uploading or making something avaliable for the general public wasn't though) until a few years ago when the law changed to require all legal private copies to be made from another legal copy (The new law still allows you to give copies to family and close friends though, but they in turn are not allowed to make their own copies).

Thanks everyone, my question was thoroughly answered.