Freesound Forums

Over one month ago, I happened to search "Minecraft" and found two sounds that had been pirated from the game: https://freesound.org/people/UltramanZero1900/sounds/240965/# https://freesound.org/people/mrsound26/sounds/516275/ A death sound for one of the games enemies, and a extremely loud edit of the eating effect. I filled out the proper reports and notified Freesound, however, both sounds are still available for download and are relatively popular. I received no return message from the Freesound Mods either. Are the sounds still under inspection or did the reports fail to go through? I love this amazing site and want to prevent any lawsuits against it.

-Sincerely

FiveBrosStopMosYT

Sounds are deferred for now.

Thanks for reporting.
If you find any other sounds that are copyright infringing don't hesitate to PM me.

Thanks again.

J.P

Ok, thanks! For proof of infringement, you can hear the eating sound here :https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=minecraft+eating+sound&&view=detail&mid=13BD4D66EAC213B8E4DB13BD4D66EAC213B8E4DB&&FORM=VRDGAR And the other sound here:https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=enderman+death+sound&&view=detail&mid=4AD2BD8517A90EBCE9B14AD2BD8517A90EBCE9B1&&FORM=VRDGAR

Thanks for the quick response!

-Sincerely

FiveBrosStopMosYT

I see the resemblance.
However, a remix of a otherwise copyrighted sounds that is then so manipulated from the original is fine in most cases.
The resemblance is still there in those sounds and therefore could cause copyright problems.

I would definitely suggest removing them. Both were popular, and Minecraft, the game they were pirated from, is owned by Microsoft, a pretty big company. I don't know how active they are with suits, but if the sounds continued to be downloaded, it could definitely cause a problem.

-Sincerely

FiveBrosStopMosYT

Something to be aware of is that Minecraft has legally used and credited a portion of their sound content from Freesound. So be careful in certain circumstances that you aren't looking at it backwards: a sound from Minecraft (or other media) that also shows up on Freesound does not necessarily mean the user stole it from Minecraft, but that Minecraft may have taken it from them.

It was only recently I learned, based on a user comment, that one of my sounds was used in the game. I would hate if there were to be some confusion thinking I stole my sound from Minecraft, when in fact it was them taking it from me.

A lot of us were excited and proud when a user's sound was used in a major movie, "Children of Men". I think it's equally cool, or more so, that one of the biggest video franchises of all time has lots of Freesound content in it:

https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/attribution/sound

I didn't see either listed user's name cited in Minecraft's attribution, but it's possible their sound edits could have been based on one of those sound that *was* listed, sourced from Freesound, meaning they would have just as much right to use the sound as Minecraft did.

It is important not to "poke the bear" when it comes to giants like Microsoft, and to be strict so as not to jeopardize this site we love. It's also important to support users, too, however, and treat contributors with fairness and giving them a chance to defend themselves.

Thank you for the info Stomachache.
Minecraft does indeed use alot of sounds from Freesound.
I'll keep a close look on sounds like this from now on and be more careful as to give users fair rights to share their sounds that may have been used from Minecraft; so long as the users does due diligence of attributing the sounds they used.

I think the problem though is that some people rip the sounds from the game that may or may not have been used from Freesound. Another issues is that users put Attribution license on it and claim it as their own when its very possible it was from Freesound or not.
It would be very surprising if the developers of Minecraft didn't hire any sound designers and only used sounds from Freesound and to which is another problem of finding out which sounds a users is remixing.
Whether the sound is CC0, Attribution, or a direct unknown origin rip from the game is very important that the user remixing a sound find that out before uploading here.

Thanks again for the info!

J.P

Wow! I love Minecraft and it's awesome that Freesounds were used in it! If I remember right, the descriptions of the sounds in question implied that they were taken from the game, and both were relatively recent posts, Minecraft is over ten years old. To see if they're legal, just see if the enderman sound (I'm not sure which one, there's several) and the eating sound are from Freesound.

-Sincerely
FiveBrosStopMosYT

I just looked through the list and it looks like neither of the sounds were listed, they could be named weird though. I know some of the sound design used in Minecraft, and many of the enderman sound effects were words reversed and sped up. I didn't see any vocals on the list, so the enderman sound is probably a infringement. The best thing to do is probably contact Minecraft and inquire with them.

-Sincerely

FiveBrosStopMosYT

Erokia wrote:
It would be very surprising if the developers of Minecraft didn't hire any sound designers and only used sounds from Freesound

The most likely reason that sounds were used from Freesound at all was that Minecraft started out as a hobby project by one man. When it blew up in popularity the guy started Mojang, then later sold Mojang to Microsoft. It's likely that any recent sounds in the game from newer updates were custom-made.
It looks like only the early sounds in the game are from Freesound, back when he couldn't afford a sound designer, such as the synth notes for the music and the classic dog sound effects. That may mean that the eating sound is under a CC license, but the man may have also created it himself as I did not see it on the list.

stomachache wrote:
A lot of us were excited and proud when a user's sound was used in a major movie, "Children of Men". I think it's equally cool, or more so, that one of the biggest video franchises of all time has lots of Freesound content in it:

https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/attribution/sound

Thanks for sharing that. It deserves a spot in the FAQ next to the bit about Children of Men under attribution. I'll be adding this later!

Cheers

I don't know how active they are with suits, but if the sounds continued to be downloaded, it could definitely cause a problem.