Freesound Forums

Hey, i'm a radio ham, i recently put together a rig for recording from my radio scanner, conversations and stuff, what is the legality of sharing these on freesound? in my country (The UK) it's technically illegal to listen anything not meant for you but it's unenforcable, i know not to upload recordings of VHF Airband because i've heard they enforce that, and that ham radio QSOs are ok if i ask the other ham, but what about PMR and buisness band (walkie talkie) conversations, etc? as long as they're not kids, is this ok? there's a guy on youtube (ringway manchester) who uploads marine VHF conversations and stuff and doesn't seem to get in trouble, but could i get sued if i uploaded a recording of construction workers being unprofessional or something?

For now i'll just upload recordings of creepy sounding interferance and more traditional field recordings until i do more research.

these are the ones who know in UK: https://rsgb.org/main/
I think the can help you

olliegw wrote:
Hey, i'm a radio ham, i recently put together a rig for recording from my radio scanner, conversations and stuff, what is the legality of sharing these on freesound?

In USA you would not have copyright to such recordings, see ...
"Bob creates copyrighted material from afar ...
Distribution of this recording would require both Bob's and Alice's consent now, or Fair Use",
https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/93870/are-amateur-radio-transmissions-in-the-public-domain

olliegw wrote:
Hey, i'm a radio ham, i recently put together a rig for recording from my radio scanner, conversations and stuff, what is the legality of sharing these on freesound? in my country (The UK) it's technically illegal to listen anything not meant for you but it's unenforcable, i know not to upload recordings of VHF Airband because i've heard they enforce that, and that ham radio QSOs are ok if i ask the other ham, but what about PMR and buisness band (walkie talkie) conversations, etc? as long as they're not kids, is this ok? there's a guy on youtube (ringway manchester) who uploads marine VHF conversations and stuff and doesn't seem to get in trouble, but could i get sued if i uploaded a recording of construction workers being unprofessional or something?

For now i'll just upload recordings of creepy sounding interferance and more traditional field recordings until i do more research.

Hello Olliegw

Thank you for your question.

If you search Freesound, you will find that there are several radio recordings already at Freesound, including some that I have uploaded myself (from the Twente University online radio receiver. http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/)

I would say radio recordings would be accepted at Freesound, provided that these are not recordings of radio programs - i.e., amateur radio conversations OK-ish (see further details below) but commercial radio programs obviously not.

The radio waves are full of interesting sounds. First lets cover some material that is absolutely OK and (in my opinion) sonically interesting:
- digital and odd signals (non-voice)
- weather and interference
- number stations
- weather stations
- world clock / time signals
- Military transmissions (*)

(*) whilst this might look strange, but I would not expect any military for launching a lawsuit for publication of material they transmit non-encoded through the radio waves. Anything transmitted in such way must be non-sensitive.

Material that is obviously not OK:
- Any commercial station or transmission unless permission has been obtained or the uploader has copyright of the material.

And now the "grey area" stuff:
- Although from a strictly legal view, a person talking on amateur radio would have copyright to what they are saying, in practice, a lawsuit is very unlikely. UNLESS THE NATURE OF THE MATERIAL IS SENSITIVE.
- So, it is more a case of PRIVACY and PRIVATE DATA protection than so much copyright.
- If you upload any radio conversations, I recommend the following:
* Make sure the participants are not identifiable - Names, locations, station ID
* Make sure the contents is not sensitive - Talking about the weather = OK. Someone confessing to having an affair with a neighbour = NOT OK.
* Best to upload only small excerpts, rather than full length conversations
* Of course, if you have the participants permission to record and upload, then it is OK. Please state so clearly in the sound description.

Also remember that your sounds will go through moderation. Moderators may ask you questions about the recordings and should help block anything that is problematic.

Hope this is helpful.