Is this copyright infringement?

[yoba333]

Creating a Awesom-O 4000, a minor character that appeared on one episode of South Park. I have the mesh and texture done and I was wondering if it was copyright infringement to voice him with the voice of Cartman and make him a companion if I give credit to where it is due.

[simplywayne90]

On a similar note to the mods, I'd like to include clips of voices I've found for free over the internet, would I be allowed to upload a mod including a sentance or two from an old movie,

 

Specifically I hoped to use some soundbytes made for prank calling, from the monty python holy grail, to voice a remake of the "Bridge of Death" encounter from Fallout 2. Simply 3 sentances, and I've searched through the TOS and through the forums and found nothing on the subject of very small clips of voices.

 

If its not allowed then I will simply not include the voice clips from the websites.

[urbex]

Realistically, no. Falls directly under fair use and there's no chance of a lawsuit etc.

According the the mods here, possibly. If they ban people for uploading music distributed for free by artists, they'd probably ban for this.

[RustyBlade]

From my experience here, I am going to say that if you use an actor's voice you will be in violation of the TOS. If you were to use your own voice and do an impression, you are good to go unless you are using a copyrighted performance script in which case all bets are off. As an example: If you used your own voice to do George Carlin's monologue of the words you can't say on TV as part of your mod, his heirs, as owners of the copyright of that material could file suit. Alternatively, you could use your own performance of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik without issue but if you used a recorded version from anyone else you would be screwed. Intellectual property rights are the bane of modders everywhere but by the same token they protect those same modders. It is one of those wonderful double edged razorblades that we trip and fall on in the lavatory each morning :blush:

[simplywayne90]

Well for me, thats fine for now, since the special encounters project will take some time before its beta, of course after that if its still not okay to use voice samples from the internet, then I'll simply live with that or privately recommend sites other than nexus to get and use the voices in the mods.

 

That way I can upload to nexus and if people want to go that extra mile they can hoof it on there own.

[RustyBlade]

Alternatively, you could always ask for permission :thumbsup:

[Thandal]

Plus; any posting on Nexus known to point users to where they can obtain unauthorized copyrighted material could get the poster banned anyway, even if the material itself isn't uploaded here.

[urbex]

From my experience here, I am going to say that if you use an actor's voice you will be in violation of the TOS. If you were to use your own voice and do an impression, you are good to go unless you are using a copyrighted performance script in which case all bets are off. As an example: If you used your own voice to do George Carlin's monologue of the words you can't say on TV as part of your mod, his heirs, as owners of the copyright of that material could file suit. Alternatively, you could use your own performance of Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik without issue but if you used a recorded version from anyone else you would be screwed. Intellectual property rights are the bane of modders everywhere but by the same token they protect those same modders. It is one of those wonderful double edged razorblades that we trip and fall on in the lavatory each morning :blush:

How exactly are copyright laws beneficial to modders?

[dazzerfong]

Promotes creativity and ingenuity, in theory. It allows you to broaden your mind and sharpen your skills.

[RustyBlade]

How exactly are copyright laws beneficial to modders?

 

At the risk of over simplifying it, without copyright laws to protect the companies that make the games, the games you are modding would not be made as there would be no profit in it. Without games to mod, modders would not exist.