[StargateSpankyHam]

Well, I came across the ultimate sound effect to use for one of the beam cannons in my mod - the asgard plasma beam sound, from Stargate Atlantis. Even better, in the clip, there is no background noise, no dialouge, no music, nothing. Just the sound of the epic plasma beam firing. I can't believe a clip that perfect even existed!

However...is this legal? If I credit MGM for the sound effect, can I use it? Are sound effects like this copyrighted? And on that note...what is the legality on using copyrighted materials in non-profit works? I saw ships from Descent 3 in a Freespace 2 mod, which leads me to assume it's at least possible to do legally.

[Kusanagi]

Should be fine under the creative commons license, I believe. Just give them credit in your credits and don't make any money off of it I don't know of anyone actually patenting sound effects and forbidding them to be used in private applications, or else Fate of the Galaxy and all the Star Wars/Sci Fi fanfilms would be in deep trouble. 

[Ypoknons]

It depends on the jurisdiction too, the law is different between countries and states within the same country. You also have to differeniate between criminal and civil liability. And you also have to weight that against the possibility someone will actually sue - just because they have the right doesn't actually mean they'll actually enforce it. They might actually want, say, a sound effect to get spread around even if they technically own the rights to it. And realistically, ligitation is expensive so you want to get your money back, and modders aren't exactly moneybags, so most for-free modders get a cease and desist letter at most (of course, this is not formal legal advice lol! - I'm sure if someone is unreprenentant they'll actually sue, but most modders stop at a C&D letter anyways). I mean, your mod isn't based around this sound effect, is it?

[The E]

Should be fine under the creative commons license, I believe. Just give them credit in your credits and don't make any money off of it I don't know of anyone actually patenting sound effects and forbidding them to be used in private applications, or else Fate of the Galaxy and all the Star Wars/Sci Fi fanfilms would be in deep trouble. 

Uhhh, no. That is not how Creative Commons works. Now, presumably, those SFX are part of the Stargate IP, and as such, MGM holds the copyright. If you want to use them, you can do so under the "Fair Use" clause of the US copyright law, which basically covers what we are doing here. As long as you are crediting the creators correctly, it should be OK.

Regarding Creative Commons: CC is a licensing model for creative content similar to the GPL is for code. You can put stuff you have personally created under CC, but you can't do the same thing with other people's works, unless they have given you permission to do so.

[Droid803]

my process goes more like

1) will they ever know
2) if they know will they even care
3) if they care will it even be worth it to bother you

the answer to all 3 is generally no
its not like youre selling this for money or claiming that you made it all yourself

im lazy tonight so no punctuation

[mr.WHO]

my process goes more like

1) will they ever know
2) if they know will they even care
3) if they care will it even be worth it to bother you

the answer to all 3 is generally no
its not like youre selling this for money or claiming that you made it all yourself

im lazy tonight so no punctuation

Droid made a perfect point. Most mod (not only Freespace, but countless other games) stick to those 3 points. As long as you don't earn money with your mod, or claim that you're the creator of music/sound then nobody really care that you use them.

EDIT: The only two know game developers that does'nt apply to that are:
- Blizzard and all of their games
- EVE developers - if you want to make EVE mod for any game, first you must ask them for permission.

[General Battuta]

my process goes more like

1) will they ever know
2) if they know will they even care
3) if they care will it even be worth it to bother you

the answer to all 3 is generally no
its not like youre selling this for money or claiming that you made it all yourself

im lazy tonight so no punctuation

good poster 

[Spoon]

my process goes more like

1) will they ever know
2) if they know will they even care
3) if they care will it even be worth it to bother you

the answer to all 3 is generally no
its not like youre selling this for money or claiming that you made it all yourself

im lazy tonight so no punctuation

good poster 

+1 to this

[jr2]

EDIT: The only two know game developers that does'nt apply to that are:
- Blizzard and all of their games
- EVE developers - if you want to make EVE mod for any game, first you must ask them for permission.

Isn't EA picky enough to do that too?  I don't really know; I just get this feeling...

[StargateSpankyHam]

Excellent advice, guys.

As always, credit given where credit is due. It's not like I'd claim I made the sound myself. And fortunately, the mod isn't actually dependent on that particular sound effect - it just sounded awesome and was sufficiently convenient.

Now, how about music? Does music follow the same rules? I was reading through the credits for BP: WiH, and they used and credited other people's music. Heck, they used music from the same band that composed the soundtrack for the new STAR TREK movie (a fact that I found earth-shatteringly awesome).

On a side-note, I'll (eventually) be releasing a teaser video for my mod, and the search for some music for it is...quite ongoing.

[mr.WHO]

Yes, this apply to music and OST as well.

[General Battuta]

Now, how about music? Does music follow the same rules? I was reading through the credits for BP: WiH, and they used and credited other people's music. Heck, they used music from the same band that composed the soundtrack for the new STAR TREK movie (a fact that I found earth-shatteringly awesome).

Two Steps from Hell actually only did the trailer for new Trek - Michael Giaccino did the soundtrack for the movie itself.

[StargateSpankyHam]

Oh...

Still, they did the trailer for the new Star Trek movie - and the intro cutscene music for War in heaven. 

[Kusanagi]

Should be fine under the creative commons license, I believe. Just give them credit in your credits and don't make any money off of it I don't know of anyone actually patenting sound effects and forbidding them to be used in private applications, or else Fate of the Galaxy and all the Star Wars/Sci Fi fanfilms would be in deep trouble. 

Uhhh, no. That is not how Creative Commons works. Now, presumably, those SFX are part of the Stargate IP, and as such, MGM holds the copyright. If you want to use them, you can do so under the "Fair Use" clause of the US copyright law, which basically covers what we are doing here. As long as you are crediting the creators correctly, it should be OK.

Regarding Creative Commons: CC is a licensing model for creative content similar to the GPL is for code. You can put stuff you have personally created under CC, but you can't do the same thing with other people's works, unless they have given you permission to do so.

That's what I meant, which is why I shouldn't post on HLP when drunk.