Question Can I add copyrighted music pack for scenes to vamhub recourse page?

[HungryBobo]

Can I add copyrighted music pack for scenes to vamhub recourse page? Some of them will be edited for looping and all rendered in ogg to take up less disk space

 

[atani]

Probably shouldn't, but there's all kinds of copyrighted music shared already

 

[BlackMagic]

In the states, at least, if it is non profit and done for "Educational" purpose it is generally OK. That is why YouTube can exist. Didn't I read somewhere that Vam converts all audio to wav before it plays it?? Other than space considerations, would it be easier on VAM just to have it in wav form (inside an assetbundle of course)?

 

[MacGruber]

Can I add copyrighted music pack for scenes to vamhub recourse page?

Obviously not

I would recommend to try find free music you can use, there is plenty around.

For example https://www.free-stock-music.com/ is a good source. Got most music for my scenes from there. I think most songs there are under CC BY license only, you just have to credit the author. In some cases you can pay up to not even having to credit them.

In addition to crediting on the VaMHub resource page and in the VAR file credits, I usually put a TXT file with the required crediting wording next to the MP3 file...like this:

 

[MacGruber]

Didn't I read somewhere that Vam converts all audio to wav before it plays it??

On load VaM converts into some internal formats (there are 3 different ones, depending on the purpose of use). That's why loading audio in VaM takes so long. However, you can provide audio in form of an AssetBundle, so that conversion is done up-front in Unity Editor. Scene loading times can be 50-100x faster. For a handful of audios it may not matter, but if you have hundreds/thousands of audio files like some complex scenes, that becomes critical as loading time of your scene improves from minutes to seconds. To play Audio from AssetBundle you need to use LogicBricks (either SoundFromAB or RandomSoundFromAB).

 

[BlackMagic]

I had a short discussion with the lawyer my wife works for. I was correct - and wrong. You are legal to use copyrighted songs -UNTIL you distribute it. So you CAN NOT embed songs into a download as that is considered unlicensed distribution. drat! Which is why, he pointed out, YouTube try's to prevent downloads of music (kind of).

 

[BlackMagic]

So, is there any advantage for speed or quality of the format of sounds being put into the assetbundle? I know wav & FLAC files have a slight quality advantage over mp3, but is that lost when put into a bundle?
I don't mean to nag, I know you are very busy, but the engineer in me is curious.

 

[hazmhox]

God that thread is old

In the states, at least, if it is non profit and done for "Educational" purpose it is generally OK. That is why YouTube can exist.

Being a musician... I can't stress this enough, since it might be caught by someone and think it's true... this is very not true

"Educational purposes" and "non profit" does not allow you to use any kind of copyrighted content however you want. On top of that Youtube can exist "that way"... because they did not give a fuck years ago, and still kind of don't give a fuck today. Publishers got mad at some point which is what triggered the whole DMCA debacle.

You won't get sued if you pop up a Katy Perry song at your school with a bunch of teenagers... it still doesn't mean it's legal. But the second you use a very mainstream song and use it in your "non profit / educational" short movie, you will either immediately get taken down OR get commercial ads on your content that goes fully back to the owners.

This is a biased perception because of the internet. People also don't give a fuck about IP, copyrights and licences... so it is perceived as ok, but it's not the case legally speaking

Just like the stupid "7secs of a copyrighted is ok" is a very big urban legend. If you use a copyrighted material IN ANY SITUATION, you should licence it properly.

For instance, people think "sampling" is ok/free (like in rap or electronic music)... but (generally) all samples are cleared with the owner of the rights.

You are legal to use copyrighted songs -UNTIL you distribute it.

Again, sorry to disappoint, I don't know in what field your wife's lawyer work. But this is also not true sadly.

I'm saying that because I highly doubt you mean "you can use it in your scene just for you to watch it"... 'coz that would be the same as saying "your are allowed to play the CD you just bought in your living room"

Why do you think bars, restaurants or any public places have to pay an annual fee to play music? Because you can't broadcast copyrighted content without "licencing" it. That specific fee covers that for public places.

If you have not licenced the content, you cannot use it in any form of media that you will publicly release, period.

Your sentence would be true if "distribute" would mean "publish". But this would simply mean what I was saying above like playing a CD in your living room or in your car. Which is pointless in the context of art you would want to publish like on this hub

Can I add copyrighted music pack for scenes to vamhub recourse page? Some of them will be edited for looping and all rendered in ogg to take up less disk space

You can.
A lot of people here don't give a fuck and have copyrighted materials in their scenes.

On the other hand VaM's TOS mention you are responsible for the licence enforcement. So if any company would stumble upon your content and ask for removal, the team will immediately take it down without warning. And all the legal shenanigans would be adressed to you : )

I would avoid any mainstream content... especially very popular ones. But some artists are ok with sharing their music through different medias... obviously, never the ones behind big publishing companies.