If I were to design an audio track of unique wind sounds, but also randomly add in clips of bird sounds that I have from a cd of relaxing sound effects collection. Would this be legal?

Since I'm not using the entire track but maybe 1 second worth of this track.

Does anyone else do this? Or is this simply the wrong thing to do?

This discussion has cropped up before, and the consensus of opinion is just that - opinion, no-one in here (so far) has actually been qualified to give legal advice on the matter. My own personal feeling is that sampling a few seconds of sounds to create a new work in a different market is entirely reasonable and not going to swipe the food from starving infants' mouths; but it's equally others' feelings that this is wrong and permission should be sought from the copyright holder. Just remember that the copyright holder is not going to be the poor starving artist but a faceless corporation which is at this very moment trying to rip you off somehow, burn your rights, harass Norwegian teenagers with custodial sentences demanded from another country, and threaten 12 year old girls with huge fines for using a computer.

Cas :)

I have pretty much the same feelings towards this as you seem to have. I just didn't want to find myself getting into trouble down the road... But since it would be such a short clip and hidden inside some other sound effects, it would be near impossible to trace back to the original anyhow, I suppose.

Also, I downloaded Alien Flux, but it didn't seem to work on my computer. The background looked alright, but the sprites looked like jigsaw puzzels... I'll download it again and take a screenshot to give you a better understanding of what I mean if you like.

In france, there is tolerance based on duration. This is important for DJ who mix music and sell it. I don't know in other country.

In most places this is illegal. But I don't think it's *WRONG* - and you won't get caught.

The Game That Should Not Be Mentioned does indeed use two samples, one from the Cure put through a granular synthesizer and one from Megadeth. Neither of whom, I should think, care. If the sprites look like jigsaw puzzles its because your graphics card drivers are broken.

Cas :)

"If the sprites look like jigsaw puzzles its because your graphics card drivers are broken. " < that would make a fantastic Signature. :D

If it lasts only 1 sec are you sure you _REALLY_ need it? If you are taking someone else's work and hope they will not notice it, that means your game will not be popular enough, and if you start with such a thought, then maybe it's time to start another project or maybe another career? :)

That faceless corperation bit is getting a little bit old.

Is it *morally* wrong to lift some sounds, I should think not, however, legally it probably is, if it doesn't say "royalty free" somewhere on the packaging. Generally you shouldn't do this not because it's going to hurt anyone, but because just in case the author somehow knows the sound effect so well that he decides to sue you for infringement. And if you don't think sound effects can be recognized, you're wrong (some can't be for sure but others).

In the game the Secret of Monkey Island there is a shop, well there's actually several places that have close door sounds in the game. But the one sound they use, is probably from a stock sound library, because I hear that same close door sound frequently in movies, and yes it is the EXACT same sound. Probably the reason I recognize it is because I heard it so much, anyhow, that means if I can do that, someone else can too, and who better than the author of the sound.

So just don't even ask questions like these when you really already know the answer.

(Just don't think i'm getting on your case, that last sentence wasn't meant to have a bad tone to it, i'm just saying, it's not worth the time to ask :-)

Any lawyer, when asked, "Is this legal?" Will almost invariably answer, "No."

The correct question to ask is: "How can I do this legally?"

Happy Holidays. :)

-David

Why not just contact the owner of the bird sounds and see if you can work out a deal with them? In the best case, they just might let you put the sounds in so long as you give them a line in your credits. If you end up working something else out (or if you fail to come to an agreement), you know exactly where you stand with them. That way you don't have to wonder whether it's right or wrong, or worry about getting caught with your hand in someone's cookie jar.

If you can't work something out with the owner of the sounds, you can probably track down a bird-watching group and get audio samples from them.

John