Legalities of creating customs
- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I think it’s time to tackle the semi-large elephant in the room.
I was in the shower thinking of ways to find and get masters for a better custom song experience.
I thought about contacting Wavegroup and asking them if we could use their masters for the GH series (silly, I know).
A problem popped in my head in that instant: Supposing that Wavegroup did comply and sent us their GH masters (guitar, drums, the whole sha-bang), and we used them, could Harmonix and Activision force us to take down our customs for using material that once belonged in GH? The GHtoRB3 project? What about customs with “normal” tracks?
C3’s authoring group is basically nonprofit, so we couldn’t get sued for profiting from these customs. Nevertheless, could we be “prohibited” from using the material under a statute since we’re re-distributing copyrighted material in the CONs?
C3’s authoring group is basically nonprofit, so we couldn’t get sued for profiting from these customs. Nevertheless, could we be “prohibited” from using the material under a statute since we’re re-distributing copyrighted material in the CONs?
Of course. This was the very first discussion we had when we decided to come together to keep this game alive. This is a fan based project and what we want to do is for people to keep having fun with a wonderful game and keep the legacy of Rock Band alive. Still, we obviously don’t own rights to almost any of the songs we work on. And the first thing we asked ourselves is: who is this gonna affect?
There are 2 parties involved: Harmonix and the rights owners. Rock Band 3 has stopped DLC production, Harmonix has moved on. Since we never release anything that’s already available on the Rock Band store, not even to add keys (except for the upgrades, which still require you to buy the original song) there’s no competition there.
For the rights owners, is anyone really going to look for a custom, download it, open it in LeFluffie, extract the MOGG file, open it in Audacity, extract the correct audio tracks and rebuild the final mix when you can search for the song on YouTube and feed it to any online downloaders to get the complete audio in a single click? Anyone who uploads a music video on YouTube can facilitate piracy far more than we could ever do.
Considering that and considering the limited scope of the operation (you need an Xbox with an old version of the game, you need to prep your USB keys, you need to know how to inject, etc) we reached the conclusion that we weren’t really hurting anybody. If, of course, rights owners knock on our doors, we’re gonna have to comply. Let’s cross that bridge in due time, though…
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif”>On a side note, I really don’t care for covers. Personally, I want to play the original thing, if the audio doesn’t cut out it’s no problem for me. Of course when we can have both, that’s amazing, but it’s very rare.
The very first thing to make very clear:
Not profiting from copyright infringement does NOT protect you from legal action.
People think this makes it “fair use”, but that’s entirely untrue. It’s the whole reason why the RIAA can ruin the lives of individuals for file-sharing.
As Farottone indicates, C3 knows this and are relying upon good faith from HMX that their business isn’t being damaged, as well as the relatively small scale of this operation. Pretty much one call could bring this site down under DMCA notice, but there are truly bigger fish out there for the IP lobbies to crucify. Hopefully C3 continues to fly under the radar.
On the other hand, I suspect inclusion of GHtoRB3 project content puts them in a little more jeopardy from Activision, given that more of their work is being exploited, including the charts themselves: it’s easier to defend a custom made from scratch, since there’s more labor put in by the author and less “stealing”. It also exposes the original multitracks, which could engender bad feelings from the artists and labels that trusted them with their IP, giving them more onus to exercise those legal protections.
That, and I just don’t trust Activision.
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_cheeky.001.gif” />Pretty much one call could bring this site down under DMCA notice
Yes and no. This is something we have discussed in the past. First of all, technically “this site” is not the issue, nor is the blog. It’s the files. And then, there isn’t a single rights owner for every file. In short, there are options, but let’s not explore them until we need to.
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif”>Yes and no. This is something we have discussed in the past. First of all, technically “this site” is not the issue, nor is the blog. It’s the files. And then, there isn’t a single rights owner for every file. In short, there are options, but let’s not explore them until we need to.” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif” />Well, no and yes: you’re forgetting that the DMCA doesn’t frankly care if it causes collateral damage to unrelated parties, is overreaching and abusive of the rights of non-corporations, founded in technical ignorance, and lacking all subtlety.
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_cheeky.001.gif” /> *If* someone decides that they want the files down, I’d wager on a swath of destruction in its wake that would touch all of the moving parts, no matter their legality, and leave it to the appeals process to work it out later.From a purely ethical point of view, I tend to see it like this:
Would someone downloading and playing a song in Rock Band make them more or less likely to go out and buy that song (or its album, or other albums from that artist) from iTunes or Amazon? I’m pretty confident the answer to that question is “more likely”. That’s certainly been true for me, personally.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.