Ryan Smith on 27/12/2012 at 19:00
Long story short, I make my own sound effects and sell some of them online. Since I created these sounds, I own the rights to them. But what if I decided to use them in a mod, say for Oblivion or use them in a fan mission for Thief. Would I still be able to sell the original copies of the sounds? If so, then I don't have to worry. If not, then please provide evidence that says I can't so I don't run into trouble.
I'm no legal expert, but I must know what to consider when selling sound effects and game assets.
Much appreciated.
nicked on 27/12/2012 at 19:10
Well, as I understand it, you wouldn't be able to charge people for the sounds as included in the mod as that would break copyright laws for the game. So anyone could acquire the sounds by downloading the mod. However, they wouldn't be allowed to reuse those sounds without your permission as you still own the rights. If you then, completely separately, sell the sound effects with no connection to the game, that's fine too. Then assuming no-one breaks the law, anyone can get your sounds to listen to on their own computer, but would have to pay you to use them for their own projects.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
henke on 27/12/2012 at 19:13
I have no idea about the legal stuff but this sounds interesting. Where are you selling your soundeffects? And have you made any money of them?
Ryan Smith on 27/12/2012 at 19:51
Quote Posted by nicked
Well, as I understand it, you wouldn't be able to charge people for the sounds as included in the mod as that would break copyright laws for the game. So anyone could acquire the sounds by downloading the mod. However, they wouldn't be allowed to reuse those sounds without your permission as you still own the rights. If you then, completely separately, sell the sound effects with no connection to the game, that's fine too. Then assuming no-one breaks the law, anyone can get your sounds to listen to on their own computer, but would have to pay you to use them for their own projects.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
If what you say is true, then I can still sell the original copies of the sounds, just that I can't sell copies used when they're bundled with a package like in a mod. These original copies of the sounds are completely separate from any mod or game, so I should be in the clear unless there is documentation that says otherwise.
Quote Posted by henke
I have no idea about the legal stuff but this sounds interesting. Where are you selling your soundeffects? And have you made any money of them?
I sell them @ (
http://audiojungle.net/user/Blinn?ref=Blinn)
Yes, am I making some money. Click the link and see for yourself. :)
I also do small-scale freelancing atm, and I charge per sound. If anyone's interested, PM me (though I don't know how much luck I would have in a community of mod-makers :joke: ).
Yakoob on 27/12/2012 at 20:29
From what I understand with art assets, honestly, it depends on how you license them when you sell them. If you give people exclusive license to the sound, then they own them after the purchase, and you can't re-sell them in a mod or something (or potentially even re-use them). But if you don't give an exclusive license, then you can do whatever you want since, as you said, you still own them, and the person is technically just licensing (not owning) them from you.
So yea, you really have full control; just make sure you set it up right.
Ryan Smith on 27/12/2012 at 20:45
Quote Posted by Yakoob
From what I understand with art assets, honestly, it depends on how you license them when you sell them. If you give people exclusive license to the sound, then they own them after the purchase, and you can't re-sell them in a mod or something (or potentially even re-use them). But if you don't give an exclusive license, then you can do whatever you want since, as you said, you still own them, and the person is technically just licensing (not owning) them from you.
So yea, you really have full control; just make sure you set it up right.
On Audiojungle, they have a built-in license for each sound that goes up on their site. I still own the rights to the sounds.
demagogue on 28/12/2012 at 04:15
If you release something into the public domain, it doesn't stop you from being able to sell them, it just stops you from being able to stop other people from distributing them freely (since they're public domain assets). So you'd want a license in the distribution of the mod itself, that people cannot redistribute it or that sound effect, but I'm not sure what the game being modded allows and which license you'd want.
Practically speaking, if it's hidden & snuck in there, you could probably keep selling and hope nobody notices they can get it from free elsewhere, or try to distribute it themselves. But if you really want to retain total control over it, yeah, you'd want a license on it in the mod I think even in that case too.
If you want an exact answer, there's a legal public-interest group that answers these kinds of questions: (
http://www.newmediarights.org/about_us/contact_us)
They're the group that's been helping us figure how to set up Dark Mod to go standalone legally, which is crazy complicated because there are so many assets going so many different ways.
Volitions Advocate on 3/1/2013 at 02:20
What Yakoob says is right. It's all in how you license them. If you sell a person license to use your sounds they can use them, and that has no bearing on whether or not you're allowed to use them yourself or sell more copies. That changes if your licensing has explicitly stated that they are the only ones who may use them. It's not necessarily a specific media assets law, its just basic copyright law. (which admittedly varies from country to country)
