Freesound Forums

Afternoon,

I'm developing a web-based flash game that integrates an advert from MochiAds as the game initially loads. This will provide myself with revenue (although it seems like this will be pretty minimal in any case) each time somebody plays the game.

I have started adding a ton of sounds I found on Freesound into the game which I have kept track of so I can contact the authors to ask for permission.

However the game itself contains no audio that was not obtained from Freesound, and very little in terms of transforming the sound from it's original state.

Some threads here seem to state that usage of audio is perfectly fine regarded you attribute correctly, and don't use it in a commercial.

Some threads quote the license saying some confusing stuff about needing to transform the work or not sync the audio to anything visual. Using audio within a game of course, it is virtually impossible not to have audio sync with video, and I would say all the audio samples I am using are synced to a visual action (guns, buttons, explosion etc.) bar one which would be a music loop.

So while I'm 100% sure I will have to ask for artist's permission, I'm wondering if anybody has any predictions as to my success of requesting permission to use Freesound samples in the manner I require. Am I likely to hit a brick wall and end up with very little permission, or are most artists more liberal than the umbrella license? I'm not complaining at all, nor am I passing opinion on whether the samples should be allowable, it's the work of the artists, so they're the boss.

I am using the audio samples currently in house only, testing where to put audio and where things sound good or bad right now, so the game has not gone public. Initially the game was planned to have no audio whatsoever, but I got a few opinions and was told essentially "go to Freesounds and you'll have a game full of audio in no time," so that's what I'm doing .

I have no problem individually attributing each individual sound on a credits page within the game, linking to each specific sample URL. I'm more than happy to add credit, and don't just see it as a requirement. I would say overall I'm aiming at about 25-30 audio files embedded within the game when I'm finished.

If however I don't get permission for some audio samples, I may end up withdrawing sound altogether rather than release some half baked audio implementation. Unfortunately I have no payment to offer collaborators unless they are interested to take a very small percentage of earned revenue only, which I don't envisage as being much at all, and have poured a hell of a lot of time into the project.

The reason I'm talking about this and asking about it now is, if the use I have in mind for these audio samples is in fact cool with the Freesound community, despite seemingly somewhat against the strict interpretation of the CCL, I would like to push forward and request some audio samples.

So while I'm 100% sure I will have to ask for artist's permission, I'm wondering if anybody has any predictions as to my success of requesting permission to use Freesound samples in the manner I require. Am I likely to hit a brick wall and end up with very little permission,

I very much doubt it.

or are most artists more liberal than the umbrella license?

Probably.

I would like to push forward and request some audio samples.

Go ahead, I should think you will be pleasantly surprised.

I am NOT a lawyer so this is not legal advice.

It's debatable in the license legal code: the code says that you should not use the work as a "big" part of whatever it is that you are making.
I.e. in legal code: "You must either use the Work as an insubstantial portion of Your Derivative Work(s) or transform it into something substantially different from the original Work"

As far as I interpret this you can go ahead.

Also if you attribute properly there is no need to contact each author individually.

The Sampling+ license will be phased out with freesound2, and be replaced by cc-zero, attribution and attribution-non-commercial, which should clarify things a lot!

- Bram

Ahhh OK, I'll keep going in the direction I was going in

Thanks!

Bram
The Sampling+ license will be phased out with freesound2, and be replaced by cc-zero, attribution and attribution-non-commercial, which should clarify things a lot!