[Vidmaster]

...the thread subject tells enough... 

Anybody a link to a (preferable legal to use) source?

[Dark Hunter]

Trashman found a site with a ton of awesome music on it, but I cannot seem to find the thread...

If I do, I'll post a link.

[Nuke]

could try some black metal, they practically give it away

[--Steve-O--]

Here's the site Trashman found. all content is free and can be used in FS. yeah, this site is awsome

http://freeplaymusic.com/index.php

[Vidmaster]

yeah, but actually you are not allowed to use these, read the terms of use...

[--Steve-O--]

then i can only suggest one wanders into this site...

but what gets me though (i'm no good with legal crap, mind you) is the terms say you can use the content for free if you are using it for a non profit generating use, but to use in a game you have to licence it and pay a fee... now what about a non profit generating game? we can donload and enjoy these tracks for free...or at least they have never charged me for D/L for my own use....ugghhh...
why call it freeplay then...
how about napster or something implying payment...

[Dark Hunter]

Quote from Terms of Use:

(c)        If you are using Freeplay Music for:


                        (7)        Books, Magazines, Games, Electronic and Toy Use;

                        (17)      Non-Profit (most)

 

Then Freeplay Music requires a signed license agreement and a license fee payment as described in the Freeplay Music Rate Card

Unfortunately, I think FS2 mods fall under those categories. The only non-profit categories you are allowed to use it under are personal recreation and educational purposes, I think.
Dammit, I wanted to use some of this music!

[Darius]

Hrm...I used a couple of their tracks in Blue Planet. So I owe them a license agreement and fee now?

But then I used a lot of licensed music in that campaign...

[Jeff Vader]

Hrm...I used a couple of their tracks in Blue Planet. So I owe them a license agreement and fee now?

Let's not say anything about that outside HLP, and maybe they won't notice. 

[--Steve-O--]

i see and know nothing of any of this

[Mobius]

We could contact them and tell about FreeSpace. We might have an "official" license from whoever runs that site.

[Hyper Ion]

The Freespace EULA states...

This copy of FreeSpace 2 (the "Software") is
intended solely for your personal non-commercial home entertainment use.

The Freeplay TOU states...

Personal Non-Commercial Use (Non-revenue generating)..... Then Freeplay Music's compositions and recordings may be used without a fee.

This is my ideology in using the music of FreePlay for free in FreeSpace campaigns. (I had to say the free's ) Since the campaigns are non-commercial, I like to think they fall into that category. Heh, for the sake of argument, you can avoid the "no website broadcast" part since you would need to open/save the zip file in order to play the music. At that time, it's in your temporary files on your computer, thus the website isn't technically streaming you the music.

However, my own problem now is posting a video of FreeSpace with the music on something such as Youtube. Using my half-assed argument, would one be protected then?

[Flipside]

The problem here isn't the word non-commercial, it's personal, that's the bit that all the record companies are arguing in court at the moment, personal means the music has ownership, and under that agreement, sharing it with someone else is not personal use.

Strictly speaking, what the user license allows is for you to write missions which reference those music files on other computers, but not to make the music itself available, however, considering the actual person who wrote the music made some of the high-quality recordings available for the community, I'm not quite certain where things sit in reality.

[--Steve-O--]

and the line begins to blur.
Maybe Flipside is on to something. write the songs into the FRED missions, but make a note that suggests this songs be explored on the basis of, i dont know...coolness, that person downloads them passes them through whatever format conversion needed and boom, you have a mod with this outside music. the mod maker didn't not actually distribute said music, and the mod player just DL'd a bunch of songs that the word out here said were cool.
that would be my argument then. i looks like the rear is covered. only drawback is the person downloading the mod would have to go through a few extra steps to get and make ready the music content on their own.

i dont know, thought i'd try here...

[Flipside]

Yeah, that might work. You could recommend the site and the songs to download for your campaign, and state the campaign is set to use these tunes if you put them in the right folder. After all, that's just free advertising, and would fall, I would have thought, under 'personal use', because you are downloading the files for yourself.

[Dark Hunter]

On the other hand, if the person, for whatever reason, did not download the music, then the campaign would have no music?

Or does the substitute music option in FRED provide a fix for that?

Like, it has basic FS music, unless you download from freeplaymusic, then it has stellar music?

[Flipside]

I'm not sure to be honest, there are sexp's to change the music, so theoretically you might be able to do it with scripting?

[WMCoolmon]

IANAL, but I think that in the most common reading of that agreement, Freespace 2 would be included in the license agreement. As a distributor, Freeplay is going to be expected to look out for its artists and make sure that their music gets the protection that it deserves. Sharing a song with a few friends on your iPod is one thing; handing it out as part of a massive campaign is another. If I were Freeplay, I would want to have the legal power to be able to make sure that the artists get the credit that they deserve and that any fees that are due are paid properly. Just because they aren't the RIAA and suing people left and right doesn't mean that it's somehow easier to rip them off; they have the protection of every single one of the laws that the RIAA does, too.

If an artist has made songs available specifically for Freespace 2, I doubt that Freeplay would go after you in any case. They aren't going to offend their artists. I'm guessing from the way that their site doesn't work that they have limited resources and are a small independent website. They aren't going to risk alienating their artists by suing their friends.

OTOH they might be very willing to give mods free access to their songs for publicity, eg a link to their website or a "music from freeplay" somewhere.

But in any case, I don't think it's very smart to say "Hey, I used music from their game in my campaign and it sounds like it's in direct violation of their license agreement". Somebody from freeplay could see that there'd been a lot of hits from this thread, link back, and see someone openly flaunting their rules and decide to be not-so-friendly after all. I have heard that you will face less problems if you at least made a good-faith effort to contact a copyright holder before using their stuff in your work of art. (Source: A book on independent filmmaking written by a bunch of lawyers) If you are ignorant, I imagine you would get less punishment as long as you took action to correct the legal problem once it was known. But if you knew there was a legal problem, but you didn't bother to correct it, and you announce that on a public forum, you're not putting yourself in a very defensible position

EDIT: I forgot the disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER
IANAL