Freesound Forums

Hi,

I am brand new to this site and would like to know the ways that samples can be used in commercial applications. Could I use these sounds in their entirety in a commercial application such as a computer game? If not what would I need to do to these sounds to use them? Does using the work in a game effect constitue creative transformation?

Thanks Ron,

If you CLEARLY credit the sounds to the users who made them, you can.

- bram

Hi, I certainly do appreciatie your answer.

I wouldn't have any probem giving credit to the work. However, I really messed up the first time when I asked my question in that I didn't go into detail of my confusion. I am sorry about that. So, let me see if I can't get this right this time around. lol

It is the full legal code that is confusing me. Under reading the summary of the license(Human Readable Creative Commons License), one would think that giving credit would be enough. However, I went into the legal code of the Sampling Plus 1.0 license.(the long form) I was reading under terms and condition 3 (License Grant and Restrictions) under part a. (Re-creativity permitted.) under subpart ii. and it states: "In the case of a musical Work and/or audio recording, the mere synchronization ("synching" of the Work with a moving image shall not be considered a transformation of the Work into something substantially different.". This is the part that threw me because in software it seems as though this is exactly what one is doing. So, how am I misunderstanding this?

Thanks, Ron

Furthermore, to not confuse anyone, I shouldn't have left out the first part of that term/condition:

ii. Your Derivative Work(s) must only make a partial use of the original Work, or if You choose to use the original Work as a whole, You must either use the Work as an insubstantial portion of Your Derivative Work(s) or transform it into something substantially different from the original Work.

So, would the video game fall under this portion or the portion about syncing it with an image?

Thanks Again, Ron

Hello and welcome

The discussion about this subject provoked a debate to change the license of Freesound, to something clearer (attribution, attribution non commercial or/and public domain).

Right now, the best you can do is contact the author of the sounds you want to use and directly ask about the subject.

I am not a lawyer.

Anyway, with this license all depends on what is concideered an "insubtantial portion of your derivative work".

License states clearly that synching is not enough modification of the sound as to be concideered something "subtantially different from the original work", so the above possibility is the only one.

But i am not a lawyer.

Cheers.

There's also the bit about it being an insubstantial part of a greater work, though. It really is a bit hairy.

The thing is, I think most people here submit sounds in the spirit of the sampling license as defined by the commons deed. So really, just credit the sample authors where you credit everyone else, and don't use the samples to advertise an unrelated product, and I don't think anyone will be angry with you. (Although asking permission is always a nice gesture and can clear up any confusion.)