4.12 development update discussion and feedback

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by EJGr.Ost_Caspar

Implementing sound files without save copyright issues could bring us into trouble. Creating quality sounds from scratch on the other side is out of our abilities. Most mod sounds are 'borrowed' somewhere.

I don't understand the difficulty. You keep the sounds you've got, but officially allow people to make their own add-on sound packs - like is currently the case for speech packs. In that case, DT and 1c aren't liable for individuals' choice to violate copyright. Problem solved.

Alternately, you work with talented outside sound creators with the stipulation that any sounds they provide must be free of copyright. There's enough copyright free stuff out there that it isn't a limitation.

Finally, copyright for sounds seems to cover music and spoken word recordings, rather than sound effects. As an example, some years ago a U.S. court threw out Harley-Davidson's attempt to copyright the distinctive sound of its motorcycle engines.

Courts in the U.S. also seem to be somewhat favorably inclined towards "sampling" sounds as long as the work isn't entirely copied and it is altered in some substantial fashion. For example, while you might get sued for using the exact tune as the default Windows 7 start-up sound, it would be fair use to incorporate a snipped, sampled or altered version of it in a larger work.

So, even in the unlikely event that someone comes after DT for sampling their recording of a Merlin engine, as long as the original sound was snipped, altered and re-looped in some way, they have no standing.