Singing Songs

[TeamBacon]

So, obviously you can't just take copyrighted material that is not yours and put it into a mod.

 

My question however is, how do the laws apply to something like a character singing 10 to 15 seconds of a copyrighted song as part of them just standing around idle? Just a character, by themselves, singing a few lines of a song, getting some of the words wrong. No files used from the original artwork, and not anywhere near the original artwork in its entirety.

 

Like a robot singing 10 seconds of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Is that against the TOS?

[PoliteRaider]

I certainly can't speak to the Nexus site TOS.

 

However the composition to "Over the Rainbow" is currently owned by Robbin's Music Corporation on behalf of MGM, so even if you avoid the copyright on individual recordings like Judy Garland's it would still be using a composition which is under copyright.

 

Edit: However, under U.S. Copyright law you can apply for what is known as a Mechanical License which gives you the right to create a cover version. The advantage is that this is automatic and doesn't require permission of the original artist. It's often quite cheap as well (around US$15 if you're not making a profit from your product). For more information:

 

Wikipedia page on Mechanical Licenses.

Easy Song Licensing (Note: This is a commercial website)

 

While I can't speak for Nexus, I think it's likely that possessing the license to use the material would be sufficient for the TOS.

Edited April 10, 2016 by PoliteRaider

[TeamBacon]

A composition implies the use of the song in its entirety or near entirety.

 

I'm not talking about something that would legally be considered a song.

[PoliteRaider]

Oh okay, in that case I'm not sure. That information was from another project where I needed a full piece of music, I'm not quite sure how it might apply with just a small sample.

[EmissaryOfWind]

I'm pretty sure that an extract as short as ten seconds falls under Fair Use, so there shouldn't be a problem!

[mm137]

Not sure about the UK, but I'm pretty sure US law says that Fair Use only applies to work you are critiquing, or changing significantly such as a parody or mashup, not just use in general. There's no definitive line drawn for how much of a song you can use, for example. It's kind of a gray area, but I could see this idea being "transformative" enough to squeak by.

[TeamBacon]

As far as US law goes, I know there is no issue. What I am looking for an answer on is the TOS specifically related to mods and this particular website.

[seekingthesun]

nah it's called the "needle drop" clause. Harkening back to the days of records. It's the reason why you can sample short parts of songs on iTunes or why radio station promos that use songs, only use short parts of many songs to get around having to pay.