Freesound Forums

Hi,

The title of my post is somewhat facetious and I am in no way advocating copyright infringement of any kind. However, I do have some questions relating to sounds I have recently recorded.

I didn't realise how pereneal music from cars was until I tried to record traffic noise outside my house! The sound of music passing you at speed is pretty cool and the tracks are pretty unrecognisable. Am I all right to use this sound if I make sure that the material is inissernable? I'm guessing not but I thought it might be worth asking. I think I heard somewhere that it was only considered copyright infringement if you used over so many bars of the music or something, though I may have been misinformed.

The second question is even more interesting. I read in a sound design book that when recording peoples' vocals you should get them to sign a release form stating that you can use their voice in whatever way you want to avoid legal complications later. What happens when you're out in public? On the same day as I was being pestered by car music and radio sounds, of which there were so many that a two hour recording session was unusable, I attractive the attention of quite a few drivers who wound down their windows and shouted at me, wooping and one guy said hi. I have quite a clean car pass by with him saying hi and he is very audible. It's just one word. Can I use it? Likewise the shouting drivers? They would make good party night joy riders passing sound effects I think and, after all, I've heard commercial sound effects with clearly audible fragments of conversation from what I take to be members of the public. So I was wondering where I stand, whether I can use this stuff or, because I don't have the peoples' permition to use their voices, whether I need to junk those segments.

Thanks for any help or advice.

While looking up some legal answer sites I came across this quote from a lawyer pertaining to public audio and video recording "It is not illegal to video tape anyone in a public place.
It can be illegal to audio tape someone in a public place if there is a reasonable expectation of
privacy".

Not sure about the 'passing music' question, but it would seem absurd to have violated any copyright laws if the material is illegible. Of course, I don't know for sure. Interesting thread, though.