The Creator's Legal Clinic: Advices and Explanations

And just to supplement this - the default legal definition of "commercial" for United States copyright law is "any activity in which you use a product or service for financial gain."

In your case, the product is the game, which you are not using for financial gain. You are using the separate product of your soundtrack, which does not contain any of the RPG Maker assets you're concerned about. So this would only be a problem if, as Andar describes, one of the authors took it upon themselves to make up a more draconian restriction.

It's been awhile since I had any legal matters to advise on, but I'm thinking of adding spatial audio cues to my project and was wondering if there are any legal matters regarding citations of audio standards targeting (e.g. THX, Dolby Digital etc.) during the splash roll. Any thoughts?

Before I get going - I am not a lawyer and this is not "legal advice".
Are you wanting to actually say THX, Dolby Digital etc? These specific branded names?

As if so, then yes, that would be a legal issue. To use these standards you have to both meet their requirements, and pay to license those technologies. If you're small-time it probably wouldn't matter but if you become successful, you would get in trouble, and you should plan for that.

If you're making imitation ones, like, you support TXH and Bolby Smige-ital, with fun fake versions of the placards, that would be fine - as that's parody. But you'll need to be fairly different.

Or in other words, if I get to a point where the project is a big enough deal (if not before that) to where I have to formally license things out then I'd have to clear everything on their end to avoid any possible issues. The only other bottleneck I can think of is in how that will factor into the overall cost of business, so that will most likely be my next concern after I work this thing into the design.

The better part right now is that it's primarily for testing purposes that I'm working with in terms of sound design once I start to implement this thing (I mean, I'm already using a variant of THX spatial audio software in my headset drivers so I at least have a head start with that, which therefore is what I'm leaning towards as my primary target). And yes, I am prepared in advance: I've already formatted and tested the so-called "deep note" video sequence to the RPG Maker size dimensions in case I do formally complete any preparations of the THX design evaluation clearances that may be necessary. I just wanted to be sure of how to approach this matter from a design and legal perspective once I get started on adding in this aspect of the overall design plan.

UPDATE March 3 2023 8:15pm CDT: I'm leaning towards using content recording technology as my THX solution to accommodate the aspects relevant to RPG Maker as I think that option would work best in having the spatial audio data within the sound clips themselves instead of relying on a software-level implementation. Contact information is being prepared for submission to the applicable THX parties to formally start the research process in terms of my options for this matter.

Quick update on the THX technology matter that was addressed earlier this week. The contact form on the THX website was "conveniently" borked up for several days after I made the decision to take this approach, however I have now successfully submitted the request for information and should hopefully hear back soon. I'm also hopeful that it will go much better on the "professional creator's" principle that spooked my financial advisor off Unity.

Hey hey decided to ask or well write it down on here because I don't quite know where to post it. It is more of a request to see or there is anything alarming about stuff I did surrounding the story rights.

So even though I am still in development I am planning on releasing my game on steam as most likely freeware.

I originally released it as a Minecraft map under a different username and title. But I was wondering or on steam they might be bothered by that because I do reuse character and location names and backgrounds. But I am releasing it under a different game title. Of course by dutch laws I own the rights to the stories I write the moment I write it down. I just don’t know or they expect me to prove it some way.

I did read the terms of services of Minecraft and they don’t seem to claim any ownership of the stuff you write in it.

I did communicate with a person who wanted to make a game based on the story and gave him the approval. It seemed to be a partnership of some kind but didn’t really write any legal documents because well I was 17 back then and had different concerns. It didn't seem to have made any progress in four years(most likely because I missed his messages three years ago)

@Ganbarisa Steam, like most hosting services, is not bothered by most anything. In order for you to have any problem, someone would have to file a report of copyright infringement against you once your game is there.

And since you are the original author of the story, and therefore hold all copyright, there's no one who could file anything against you.

How could anyone prove they thought of something? :guffaw:

I don't think Valve's brain scanners are up to that task. All that anyone can do when contesting copyright is try to prove that they had something first.

Haha awesome thanks that helps me being less concerned xD

I honestly don't recall without going back through the discussion if it has been brought up or not, but I kind of just had a thought about copyrighted material used in established meme contexts (e.g. a chase against the Benney Hill music, pulling a Rickroll on an NPC or other in-game character etc.) and whether or not it's something that needs to be cleared with the rights holders even though it's being played as a joke. I mean, it's probably a legal gray area as it is but I'm pretty sure that it's something that might come up in content planning. (And apologies if it's something that has already been asked.)

Not really. Music has a list of fair use exceptions to copyright law - that are very easy to look up - just like every other kind of media.

And just like other media, it's fair use if the result is transformative to parody, criticize, or comment on the original work.

So unless you're somehow making a parody of the actual song "Never Gonna Give You Up" (which a Rickroll meme is not doing), that's violation of copyright.

That's what I was interested in verifying. Thanks!

Another quick question regarding use cases. Let's say that I'm working on a closing rap track to be played during the credit roll, and I'm throwing ideas around on a practice version set to the underscore track from Super Freak. If for some reason I were to investigate the possibility of actually shipping it with the game, which of the above would be the most logical thing to consider?

I don’t super know without looking it up myself…but to use a whole track for backing I kinda feel like that’s definitely getting into “would need a license or royalty agreement depending on what terms the label and/or estate of Rick James prefers” territory. I could see that getting smacked down but I’m dumb as Hell. Whether it’s likely to be a problem is another matter of course. I just think it could be a problem.

I don't see where there are multiple options above that this pertains to.

But if you're using someone else's music, that's a copyright violation. That's the really basic, original definition of copyright violation.

Yeah... although I was actually referring to the permission requirements and legal clearances side of the matter (in other words, the kind of thing that would be involved to make it official so that I wouldn't have that problem). Apologies if that wasn't immediately apparent.

But then again, I'm sure that there are legitimate alternatives for the final product even if it didn't happen.

I do not know the specifics but it would probably entail purchasing some sort of license that is not likely to be the most affordable thing for peons like us. So you know…not impossible. Just not particularly digestible unless we can burn money.

Well...yes? You can use whatever you want in whatever way you want if you have the specific permission from the legal rightsholder of it.

I guess I'm just missing what your question is because it seems super basic and has been gone over in this thread and copyrights tutorials etc.

You can't use material made by someone else unless you get permission (usually done via purchasing a license). Is there something more involved in what you meant?

I think that basically covers it. Thanks again!

A quick question regarding interpretation of characters which are subject to copyright. I'm scene testing a personality change that involves cuddle comforts, and for testing this I came up with the attached pixel art that I built out of the toy bears from the MV RTP. I don't actually plan on shipping with this (and for obvious reasons) however from a non-commercial perspective I wanted to check for the purpose of interpretation as to whether or not I can legally classify it as fan art.

There's no such thing as a "fan art legal classification" as far as I've heard of.

Please provide a link to what you're talking about.