Commander X16

Thanks for your helpful answer. My hope is that someone will help me with some new music. I haven't dared to ask anyone for help because the time schedule for the project has been so uncertain. But I will.

It seems to be a grey (or is it gray?) area. In theory there must be rules to follow, but in practice it seems like no one is interested in making a fuss about it. I mean there are lots of sites where you can download for example retro games and they continue to exist.

For now I have added credits to the composers on the credit screen in my game that is called Mine Rescue. When released - if you would be interested in including it on the SD card and the music is a problem, please let me know, I can simply remove it for now. But it is really cool, so it would be a pity ...

Johan Kårlin wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 10:03 am It seems to be a grey (or is it gray?) area.

In this context, either is acceptable.

Hi folks, this is Adam Moss (amoss in Discord). I've created a forum topic for my WIP BASIC textbook: viewtopic.php?t=6849. The code examples are homed in this repo: https://github.com/adamrmoss/basic-adventures-moss, but it's still very much in progress and likely to be altered and re-organized. Each example is available both as a text .BAS file (with line numbers and suitable for pasting into the emulator) as well as a tokenized .PRG file.

While the text of the book is proprietary, all example programs are MIT-licensed and I put no restrictions whatsoever on them.

Project organizer may or may not be interested in including some of my tutorials on the official launch SD card. I do understand that the intention is not to provide a complete archive of every known program written for the platform and it won't hurt my feelings if my work is not included. I've attached a few of the better examples to this post.

Easy for us to say but that might be a David call if it's gonna ship with the system. My $0.02 is to avoid known copyrighted works in that case less you can get a agreement in place. But that's a defer to David thing regardless, he might think it's fine or maybe the have a lawyer that can validate whether it matters since it wasn't made by the team and/or assess risk.

In general though if you're not selling the game, generally pretty ok to grab songs though being the one of the people working on music solutions, my biased opinion is having someone compose up some music for your game might be the best option.

EDIT: Also being a musician, if you do use a work from another game, just be sure to do the nice thing and credit appropriately at least.

Johan Kårlin wrote: ↑Sun Oct 22, 2023 11:38 am I have a platformer ready to be released in a couple of weeks. I am using some music from vgmrips.net. Is that a rights issue?

Yes, it's an issue. In the US, using copyrighted music without permission in a game is illegal, end of story. There are no exceptions or a "but I credited the composer" rule.

You are required to obtain a mechanical license to include a recording or arrangement of a song in your game.

As a result, we will not host games with unpermitted music or video content.

While this is not explicitly spelled out for music inside of a game, this is part of the "upload your own stuff" portion of the rules at viewtopic.php?t=6266

TomXP411 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 11:40 pm Yes, it's an issue. In the US, using copyrighted music without permission in a game is illegal, end of story. There are no exceptions or a "but I credited the composer" rule.

Ok, I hear what you say, nothing to discuss. I will simply remove the music.

Johan Kårlin wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 7:27 pm

TomXP411 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 11:40 pm Yes, it's an issue. In the US, using copyrighted music without permission in a game is illegal, end of story. There are no exceptions or a "but I credited the composer" rule.

Ok, I hear what you say, nothing to discuss. I will simply remove the music.

Thanks. I really don't mean to sound grouchy... which that post seems to be, in retrospect. Sorry about that.

It is a question that gets asked a lot, so I probably need to bake that in to the FAQ or policy page somewhere.

I know there is such a thing as a compulsory license for song covers. (Though under such a license you have to pay royalties and you have to notify the rights owner). I am not anywhere near being a lawyer but I've read a lot about copyright. It would seem a compulsory license might apply if the distributor owner of the cover song wanted to comply with the onerous book keeping requirements. A compulosry license is not carte blanche.

ahenry3068 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 8:51 pm I know there is such a thing as a compulsory license for song covers. (Though under such a license you have to pay royalties and you have to notify the rights owner). I am not anywhere near being a lawyer but I've read a lot about copyright. It would seem a compulsory license might apply if the distributor owner of the cover song wanted to comply with the onerous book keeping requirements. A compulosry license is not carte blanche.

It's almost completely useless. It allows you to perform covers, publicly. It allows you to make audio recordings of those covers for personal use. And that's about it. It explicitly does NOT allow use of a work in any other kind of medium other than an audio recording.

TomXP411 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 8:32 pm Thanks. I really don't mean to sound grouchy... which that post seems to be, in retrospect. Sorry about that.

No worries, I appreciate a straight answer and I understand it can be tiresome to repeat something people probably should know. You’re doing a great job with the site by the way : ).