Freesound Forums

I, personally, do think so.

On the other hand for what I know, Freesound has not received any kind of copyright infringement notice (it kind of happened the other way around check http://www.freesound.org/forum/legal-help-and-attribution-questions/4189/).

The arena is a bit different with sound... mods would recognize a light-saber sound. And if not-so-iconic-but-equally-copyrighted sounds were passed into the database, Fs team would delete them once given the notice. Also Fs servers are in Barcelona, Spain, not USA.

In any case, yes... there are also many reasons why we should all be worried in relation to SOPA PIPA.

So, hey, let's be alert and active.

There are also other interesting moral debates about copyright... If you make a music record the copyright lasts 70 years in some countries (and i have heard rumours of plans to extend it even longer)...
... If you develop the cure for cancer... Patents normally last for 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry...
How can that be right?

I think having milked the fat cow for many years, the music industry is now unwilling and unprepared for the changes that have already happened. No one will be paying £10 for a CD Single anymore... In fact... What's a CD?

Music is facing the same sort if change that already took place in the photo industry. Film and film developing are a thing if the past... As the current state of Kodak illustrates so well. No one goes to a photo studio to develop their photos anymore. We used to print them at home... Now we don't even bother anymore and upload them from our phones straight into facebook!...
Photos used to be highly treasured. I remember going on holliday with a 24 exposure film on my camera and choosing each photo shot carefully. Now we snap away with our 4Gb cameras. Can take 1000 photos... Technology and our fast paced condumerist lifestyle has banalized photography.

The same has happened to music... Once a nynil collection was highly prized, took years to build and, by its very natured, required to be handled with care. These days we can store terabytes of songs on our computers... We no longer value these in the same way.
Plus technology enables each person with a computer to be a bedroom musician. Times are changing... Have changed already. Millions of people make and share their music for free these days. Some of it is of impressive quality.
I agree that copyright is still important. I agree the rules need to be revised. Although i do not know what form they should take...

Hi there, here is my first post/question. Regarding to the copyright: I'm recording sounds from a city, field recordings... actually I started some weeks ago and finding some situations I'm wondering what happend with these situations and the copyright...

First, in a park, a man started to talk to me (I didn't understand any word, as it was in Seoul he was talking in Korean... -for more than five minutes-) anyway, this sound has been already accepted by the freesound's moderators but, what could you tell me about this case of recording someone's voice in the street or in a restaurant or something like that and copyright?

Second case, I was walking and recording just people walking and I found three guys playing music in the street, I didn't recognize most of the songs, so maybe they were from them... in this case, could I call this "field recording" and upload them as that to freesound, or would them change to a music sound not being acepted by the moderators? and regarding with the copyright?

Third case although it can be the second part of the case two: I could recognize one of the songs, it was "crazy" from Gnarls Barkley, what about this?

Fouth and last case, for now... I have been recording some of the crowded shopping streets from Seoul and many times the shops have speakers in the street with music... what's up with this? Can I use the records as part of my field recordings even if they have a few seconds of music with copyright?

Ok, that's all. thank you very much in advance for the answers!!

Cheers

bmoreno wrote:
Hi there, here is my first post/question. Regarding to the copyright: I'm recording sounds from a city, field recordings... actually I started some weeks ago and finding some situations I'm wondering what happend with these situations and the copyright...

First, in a park, a man started to talk to me (I didn't understand any word, as it was in Seoul he was talking in Korean... -for more than five minutes-) anyway, this sound has been already accepted by the freesound's moderators but, what could you tell me about this case of recording someone's voice in the street or in a restaurant or something like that and copyright?

Second case, I was walking and recording just people walking and I found three guys playing music in the street, I didn't recognize most of the songs, so maybe they were from them... in this case, could I call this "field recording" and upload them as that to freesound, or would them change to a music sound not being acepted by the moderators? and regarding with the copyright?

Third case although it can be the second part of the case two: I could recognize one of the songs, it was "crazy" from Gnarls Barkley, what about this?

Fouth and last case, for now... I have been recording some of the crowded shopping streets from Seoul and many times the shops have speakers in the street with music... what's up with this? Can I use the records as part of my field recordings even if they have a few seconds of music with copyright?

Ok, that's all. thank you very much in advance for the answers!!

Cheers

I'm not a lawyer, but here is my opinion, which may be totally different from other people, but possibly something to consider.

First case: I think this is fine. In the US at least if you are in a public space where you have no perception of privacy it is fine to photograph/video (almost) anyone/anything. If you are recording audio it can be slightly more complicated as there are funny laws about wiretapping which may or may not apply (for example it should be obvious you are recording audio and in your case it probably was). But that has very little to do with copyright and more to do with local laws. If he were reciting song lyrics or a poem or reading from a book then copyright (or at least publishing rights) may be an issue. But if he is just talking to you, I see no problem. Full disclosure, I have lots of these type of field recordings on Freesound, so I think it is OK.

Second case: Personally I record a lot of live music inside, outside, bands, solo people, all sorts of things. Technically those are field recordings because of the way I am recording them. But the main purpose is to record the music so I don't upload those. I feel like if the music is the focus of the recording (even if there are things like city noise in the background, the crowd, whatever) then it shouldn't be on Freesound. I know some will certainly disagree with my position on that. But say for example you are recording a parade and some band goes by and is just part of the overall recording of the parade then to me that is a different situation. So to me, if the intent of the recording is to capture the music specifically then it is music and not a sound.

Third case: Same thing as second case really, only more so.

Fourth case: Also related to the second case in my mind. I feel that if there are small bits of music that is probably ok, the intent is clearly not to break the copyright of the artist. Again, it seems like as long as the music is not the focus of the recording it is possibly OK. If you are really worried about it, make the recording and edit out the parts with the music. Just make sure to make a note of that in the description.

Keep recording!

Hello bmoreno

To quickly answer your questions...

1) normally you should ask permission from people you are recording.
Your example is a tricky one because if you could not understand the man you could not ask...

2) and 3) street musicians are ok to record and upload to freesound. Does not matter what they are palying.
Again, you should obtain permission before recording.

4) if music is playng on a place (shop, hotel lobby, train station...) that music is part of the place ambience.
Unless, of course, you are sitting under a speaker the whole time with the intention of recording yhe music itself.
If you are just walking around and pickup music from a shop or a car stereo, that is not copyright infringement.

Thank you very much, Corsica_S and AlienXXX, for your answers. Although you have kind of different answers I can get the idea.

Regarding to the first case, the man talking to me in the street, I was listening the recording with a Korean friend and he told me that the man was just talking about random thoughts (...) so there wasn't anything with copyright at first sight. For this kind of situation and for any situation similar to the second and third case I'll try to ask for permission in advance or at least a posteriori.

Thanks again!

Cheers

" street musicians are ok to record and upload to freesound. Does not matter what they are p[la]ying.
Again, you should obtain permission before recording."

Why ask for permission to record?

Do they ask for permission (from anybody) to perform publicly ? No they don't. In my opinion this sort of unsolicited performance in a public place needs no permission.

Benboncan wrote:
" street musicians are ok to record and upload to freesound. Does not matter what they are p[la]ying.
Again, you should obtain permission before recording."

Why ask for permission to record?

Do they ask for permission (from anybody) to perform publicly ? No they don't. In my opinion this sort of unsolicited performance in a public place needs no permission.

Hi Benboncan

This seemed to be Bram's position on the subject when I consulted sometime ago in relation to some samples I was moderating. As far as I am aware, it has not changed since.
I believe this was to do with copyright, BUT could well be that it actually relates with assuring compliance with (local) laws governing sound recordings.

Whether street musicians/public performers ask for permission (or not)to perform in certain places varies wildly. Some will even be paid/sponsored for by the local councils (say for example some Christmas performances). Others, such as many musicians in subway stations or city streets, are probably operating without any kind of license or authorization.
My argument on this point is similar to individual versus public recordings: recording a group of people in a public space is fine. Recording a single person normaly requires you obtain permission from that person. I take a similar position in relation to recordings of a musician/performer.

Unrelated to your points, but I would like to point out that there is a big difference between recording a musician on a subway station or recording a concert by Madonna. The first can be uploaded to Freesound. The second is a paid for event and cannot be recorded, much less uploaded to Freesound.

In case of any doubt, always best to explain what the recording is in the description so moderators have as much information as possible to make a decision to accept or reject. And other users looking at the sample also know what it it, so copyright questions never arise.