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AlderDragon
Joined: 23 Feb 2009
Posts: 258
Location: PA
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 Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:10 am Post subject: Legality of a few things? |
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I was wondering a few things. This does relate to video games in a sense, but I figured it would be best if posted in this forum. These may sound like silly questions but I figure it safer to ask first.
1) Are lyrics copyrighted? Could you get in trouble for giving away lyrics or something like that? And no, I'm not selling them.
2) Are instruction manuals for video games copyrighted? In other words, if I scanned every page of the manual to one of my video games and made it into a PDF file, then sent it to a friend, is that illegal? What if it's just a text document without any pictures or scanning?
Thanks!
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turbo
Joined: 08 May 2007
Posts: 1910
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
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Smeddy24
Joined: 31 Dec 2007
Posts: 1778
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 4:42 am Post subject: Re: Legality of a few things? |
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| AlderDragon wrote: | I was wondering a few things. This does relate to video games in a sense, but I figured it would be best if posted in this forum. These may sound like silly questions but I figure it safer to ask first.
1) Are lyrics copyrighted? Could you get in trouble for giving away lyrics or something like that? And no, I'm not selling them. |
Yes, they are very much copyrighted. All those lyrics sites you see operate because it's not worth the trouble of the copyright holders/protectors to sue. Sometimes you'll notice, though, that some lyrics aren't available, and they'll usually attribute that to the record label.
| Quote: |
2) Are instruction manuals for video games copyrighted? In other words, if I scanned every page of the manual to one of my video games and made it into a PDF file, then sent it to a friend, is that illegal? What if it's just a text document without any pictures or scanning?
Thanks! |
Oh, they should be copyrighted. They're certainly copyrightable, and I would assume they're copyrighted. I know there's a law that allows you to make a back-up copy of things for your own use, but I'm not sure to what that applies.
Ultimately, if you just want to have lyrics for a song for analysis or whatever, you're not going to get in any trouble. Similarly, you're probably cool scanning that manual and emailing it to a friend. Is it illegal? Yeah. Do the companies have the time and money to sue you? Almost definitely not. It'd be bad press for them to sue an individual for that small scale a thing, and I doubt they could cover the costs of going to court.
Edit: The guy above me makes a good point. And just for the record, IANAL.
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TheMouldyCheese
Joined: 20 May 2009
Posts: 225
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:09 am Post subject: |
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tbh, theres so many things nowadays that are supposedly illegal or whatever its getting ridiculous.
my personal rule has always been, use whatever the fuck i like, in whatever way, as long as i'm not passing it off as my own work.
As somebody said above me, these companies would be VERY unlikely to sue you for such a small 'offense'
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karatechess
Joined: 25 May 2008
Posts: 977
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:40 am Post subject: |
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| TheMouldyCheese wrote: | | tbh, theres so many things nowadays that are supposedly illegal or whatever its getting ridiculous. |
I agree. I still fail to understand how even burning a cd is illegal, even when I clearly state that it isn't my work, I take no credit, and have no intent of selling it. Basically how I see it is, if you don't make a profit from it, there should be nothing against you. YouTube channels are a great example. I believe you should be able to use any music you want on your videos, as long as you aren't a YouTube partner, who gets paid, because they display advertisement. You don't get any profit from videos (if you aren't a partner) so why should it matter? |
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Smeddy24
Joined: 31 Dec 2007
Posts: 1778
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:51 am Post subject: |
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| karatechess wrote: | | I agree. I still fail to understand how even burning a cd is illegal, even when I clearly state that it isn't my work, I take no credit, and have no intent of selling it. Basically how I see it is, if you don't make a profit from it, there should be nothing against you. YouTube channels are a great example. I believe you should be able to use any music you want on your videos, as long as you aren't a YouTube partner, who gets paid, because they display advertisement. You don't get any profit from videos (if you aren't a partner) so why should it matter? |
You deprive the person who made the song from earning money from it. Yeah, you're not making money from it, but they content creator/owner loses the opportunity for you to buy from them.
Let's say I was a YouTube Partner. Then I'd get money every time someone watched, say, this. If you rip it from YouTube and re-post it to your channel, that's money I could've had that I instead don't get. That's a very simplified version, admittedly, but I figured I'd stay with the YouTube Partner talk you brought up.
If we're talking about strictly personal use, then yes it's ridiculous. That's why you're allowed to make a single copy of software as a back-up. But if we're talking about letting someone else into the equation, there are lost profits.
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TheMouldyCheese
Joined: 20 May 2009
Posts: 225
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:53 am Post subject: |
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what about if the songs i burn have been ripped from CD's i've previously paid some stupid price for?
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Slagr
Joined: 11 Oct 2007
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Location: IL
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:55 am Post subject: |
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Scanned manuals are legal. Lyrics are probably legal too, but I'd advise just linking to a site with them up already, if available.
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turbo
Joined: 08 May 2007
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thesentence 
Joined: 21 May 2008
Posts: 1389
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 6:05 am Post subject: |
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Nowadays there are very small lines between what is technically "legal" and "illegal". Mainly a company wouldn't want you or another individual making profit or gain off of someone elses work. You can't get in trouble for making a copy of a video game cover. Plus there are free sites dedicated to that... (I am NOT saying it is legal)
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karatechess
Joined: 25 May 2008
Posts: 977
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 6:13 am Post subject: |
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| Smeddy24 wrote: | | You deprive the person who made the song from earning money from it. |
But if I paid for the CD, or the digital copy of it from iTunes, or wherever, why shouldn't I be allowed to use it in a non-partner video? I paid, so the author/songwriter/band/whoever, gets their money. I'm not redistributing it, I am making it background music for a video. I'm not making any profit from it, or making it publicly available for anyone for free. I know there are ways to get audio from youtube videos, but I am not putting it in my video for the purpose of free redistribution. |
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Smeddy24
Joined: 31 Dec 2007
Posts: 1778
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 6:47 am Post subject: |
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| karatechess wrote: | | Smeddy24 wrote: | | You deprive the person who made the song from earning money from it. |
But if I paid for the CD, or the digital copy of it from iTunes, or wherever, why shouldn't I be allowed to use it in a non-partner video? I paid, so the author/songwriter/band/whoever, gets their money. I'm not redistributing it, I am making it background music for a video. I'm not making any profit from it, or making it publicly available for anyone for free. I know there are ways to get audio from youtube videos, but I am not putting it in my video for the purpose of free redistribution. |
This is different from the question I read above. I thought you meant when a song is put up like this.
Apologies if you always meant an original work, more like this, where the music is intended only as a backing track . My answer for this is substantially different.
I believe, and the law supports this belief, an artist should have absolute control of the context in which her art is used. For instance, I wouldn't want my song used as say, the backing track for someone having their ears cut off in a movie. That's just me, maybe. Now, what happens is the record label becomes the intermediary, and generally protects the investment, the music from all unauthorized use. I would guess that Iron Maiden would get a kick out of their music being used as a backing track for this video, but they haven't actually approved of it. The label could be sued by Maiden for not fully performing its job for allowing that to stay up, if Maiden was so inclined.
The labels think they're losing money on that, I guess. That obviously doesn't make sense.
Does the artist care? Probably not. They have the right, perhaps the responsibility, to their art and reputation to be vigilant about its use, and they've given the label to act as proxy.
I agree that this type of thing is harmless, but I think the artist should be able to say "This is a perversion of my art, and it should not be able for public viewing." This is allowed, but the record labels have abused that for their own gain. I think the problem is with the record labels and not with the law.
Edit:
Even if you didn't put the video up to make the song available, like this video, you've still made it available. Your intentions may have been good, but you still did make the song available.
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karatechess
Joined: 25 May 2008
Posts: 977
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 6:57 am Post subject: |
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| Yes, I meant the second. Would it perhaps be more justifiable if it were in the background of a vlog type thing? Where if someone tried to obtain the audio, they would get the music, but my voice is still there, above the music. I meant something like that. |
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Smeddy24
Joined: 31 Dec 2007
Posts: 1778
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| Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 7:21 am Post subject: |
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| karatechess wrote: | | Yes, I meant the second. Would it perhaps be more justifiable if it were in the background of a vlog type thing? Where if someone tried to obtain the audio, they would get the music, but my voice is still there, above the music. I meant something like that. |
Well, if you're not espousing some inflammatory point of view, it'd be hard to see why the artist would be upset over your use of his song. There are some artists are very strict about the use of their art, very controlling. This is a bit silly. You can't really control the way someone takes your music entirely, but that doesn't deter the control freaks.
Is it justifiable to have some music playing in the background while you talk? I think so. I don't see a problem with it if you're just chronicling your day, or talking about what's in the news and how you feel about it. Is it legal? Probably not. Will you get in trouble? Youtube might reject it, in which case you could speed your video up a barely noticeable 5%.
If you have partnership in mind though, you might be better doing what we do on our show, and going to http://freeplaymusic.com/, because copyrighted stuff is a no-no for partners.
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InsolentWill 
Joined: 01 Dec 2006
Posts: 384
Location: Boston, MA
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| Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Smeddy24 wrote: | I thought you meant when a song is put up like this.
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Insolentwill *clicks link* ho hum...
ARRGGHHHHHAHHHHHHHHH
......
AHHHHHHH!!!!!
Thanks for the heart attack bro 
~iw
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