Freesound Forums

I am sure nothing can really be done for this, but I am an online voice actress who has given away older sound files for quite some time on this website. Although I am not really an active uploader lately I am still very active in voice work and respond to comments and messages daily.

I knew of many websites that were bundling my sound files and selling them, which I understand since I have them under creative commons that give them this right when they credit me. The issue is I have recently became friends with several people who were using my samples without even realizing it was me!

They got them from these bundles, even paid for them, but either never read into the credits or didn't care.

It isn't that I want to legally seek out everyone who hasn't credited me for legal action. I actually like to listen to the work people do and even keep track of a lot of the audio files I enjoyed on my website to highlight my voice work and those who use it.

My questions are.
1. Are those using my samples from these bundles without crediting me still violating the creative common or
2. Are these bundles since they may not be enforcing this or even stating that something in their contract that credit isn't needed.
3. Is there anyway I can track my audio other than just searching my username (which is how I find most work I have been involved in)

I know there are many people outside these bundles who don't care to credit me and I can't force people. I also doubt many of these projects are making much money or any at all so legally it would be silly to argue.

I am just a girl who wants to be able to enjoy the work I have done and see what others done. Crediting me isn't for me to really get praised by any means it's just the only way I can locate stuff I have been in throughout the internet.

Sorry that this is more of a rant, but any help would be appreciated!

I've run into the exact same issues, more often finding that my sounds are being used raw in music tracks which are then ID scanned across the internet. If the scan finds an audio match (e.g. on YouTube), it copyright claims the video automatically (which I have had several people complaining to me about - but it's no cause of mine). Almost none of these music tracks ever gave the attribution required in the license, such as this biggest offender who I never got a response from:

https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/339326/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K44j-sb1SRY

But for the questions:

1) If your sound's license has always been an "Attribution" license, then yes, they will be violating the creative commons if they didn't contact you beforehand whether they can use the sound without crediting.

2) If your sound is being sold, they will still need to credit you as the author, even if it is part of a bundle. However, I suspect that a big reason that these bundles aren't crediting you is because they obtained the sound from elsewhere outside of Freesound (e.g. a YouTube SFX video where someone else uploaded your sound). These other sources almost never credit where they got the sounds from, and with such a poor worldwide education in licensing for the general population, people always assume they are public domain.

3) I've tried to look into this, and came across "Audio search engines":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_search_engine

Though I haven't found an accurate one, this one might work somewhat:
https://audiotag.info/

If you manage to find a better one, let me know as well!

Another thing you can try is adding metadata to the sounds before you upload them here, such as in the "Contributing Artists" field, you could put your name or your website. The metadata is retained when uploading to this site, and will appear in your sound file for anyone that downloads it. Thus for wherever the sound ends up, those that read the metadata field will know where to find you.

I've noticed a lot of individuals have used my sounds raw. I've even tried to upload my own sounds on to youtube because I saw others had them uploaded and were gaining monetization for my sounds. I have never made money off of the sounds uploaded and it's my voice! I upload my sounds on my youtube and get hit with a copyright strike... I am hoping that changing my freesound.org account to make my youtube may help with this a bit as people will be able to find me and recognize me more, but at this point the damage may be done.

I've had my voice featured in many popular youtubers and song videos and it's so frustrating having other people bring it to my attention because there was no credit given.

I tried some of my more popular sounds in audiotag but didn't find any results. If I do find something that seems to work better I will pass on the information.

I'll look into the metadata section and maybe see what I can do. I have been meaning to clean up my freesounds samples as many are outdated and not of a quality I enjoy. Thus, hearing them used all the time has become very frustrating for me since many no longer make me look good compared to where I am now as a voice actor. It becomes a but harder for me, as it's obvious when someone uses my sounds I've heard them too much and as you stated most do not process them or take the time to change them enough to not be recognized.

Yes i have some samples