Make you own music in game! Options

[StaticGrazerr]

^,^ My my, what a lively moster of a post I have created! *thumbs up*

I'd have to ask a few lawyer friends about it.

[Melanthe]

Yes, yes, I know all about how unfair it is that you don't get to do whatever you like with copyrighted work. Believe me, I've heard all that over and over. All I can say is, if someone hadn't put in the effort to create the work, it wouldn't exist. I look at it from entirely the opposite point of view, it seem unfair to me that someone could be trying to make a living writing songs and music and just have to do it for free because other people happen to like their work a whole lot. :p

Nobody is going to get arrested for copyright infringement; however people do get sued. The whole business of what constitutes copyright infringement with regards to the internet is murky and evolving. As we've discussed before and so far not addressed, there are many legal risks in a project like this, and =right now= the individuals who are working on it have their personal assets at risk. This includes, for instance, Jerky's new house, just to give you an idea of the stakes here.

This is serious business, guys. Go ahead and check with a lawyer, or do some reading on the net. (Though beware of sites with agendas to push.) The law is easy to research in this case.

[exocrine]

Very true, but we'll be incorporated before copyright issues become a problem (or at least we should be). The problem then is that we'd still be at risk of losing the server and the art assets :cry:. But still, for reasons I've already explained, I doubt we'd be held liable for infringment by players. I mean hell, if "the man" can't successfully sue Bram Cohen (bittorrent creator), I doubt we would have much to worry about.

[Jerky]

Would a section devoted to this in our EULA (End-User License Agreement, that thing you click yes to when installing and opening some games) fix or help the problem? I know Melanthe mentioned it already. That is how most/all software escapes blame of users' use of it.

[Melanthe]

Jer, the thing is, we don't know what would work to protect us and what wouldn't. We would need real legal advice (not just someone's cousin over the dinner table), which would be expensive--the main reason we haven't done anything about it yet--and even if we had good legal representation we might or might not have lawsuits. Whether or not you win a lawsuit is pretty much immaterial in a case like ours, unless you go for pyrrhic moral victories. The mere fact of having to deal with one that has any legitimacy at all would be devastating to a small unfunded project. They drag on and on and they cost major money, and even if you win and get your costs paid, you had to support it till you get there and you don't get there fast.

Maybe I'm just too old and have been around too long and seen what this kind of thing can do. What we all think "ought to be" the case isn't important; what the reality of the law happens to be is what counts.

Speaking to everyone in this thread--if you are young, if you don't have any personal assets, if you haven't been involved in a lawsuit or closely acquainted with how it all works (ie, unless you ARE a lawyer) then please realize that you really are not yet able to judge the gravity of the issue.

I realize I'm taking a very unpopular position here. I feel like Cassandra. But I do think sometimes you need to listen to the voice of the elderly--every now and then we know what we're talking about. ;)

[Jerky]

Thats what I was waiting to hear actually :). To re-coin the phrase: "its better to be safe than sorry."

[StaticGrazer]

Slight bump, but something I wanted to add in.

I play on a UO server that does something like this.

Basicly you type in the notes you want to play after a command.

IE.

/play <note> pause <note, note > pause <note> ect ect.

There could be some sort of tabliture for writing down songs for later enjoyment. But I think it should be available at a later skill lever ( if 100 is max, then 60 is ability to write songs down)

This way you can have a band playing with eachother.
Or, if you just want to raise the skill, just clicking the musical instrument will play a note.