Subject:Copyrights and Sampling using Loops from Acid

Posted by: dtragic

Date:4/25/2002 11:41:35 AM

Does anyone know the ins and outs of using these Acid Sample CD's Legally for commercial sale? I want to start slaning these songs we are making but want to make sure everything is legal. We have had friends that have used "Royalty Free" sample, or at least they thought they were, to findng out they had to go buy thier own CDs off the shelfs of local stores to not get busted in the end.

If I was to publish one od these songs, would I have to write to Sonic Foundry and tell them which loops I am using, or just document each loop used in the copyright process?????

Thanks for your answers,

Derek Duncan
www.805hiphop.com

Subject:RE: Copyrights and Sampling using Loops from Acid

Reply by: xxFT13xx

Date:4/25/2002 11:53:38 AM

you mean the Acid Loop Libraries you can buy? Of course they are copyright free! You purchased it!!

now get back to work!!

-Sin

Subject:RE: Copyrights and Sampling using Loops from Acid

Reply by: SonicJG

Date:4/25/2002 12:15:39 PM

Yep, any loop library you've legally purchased (or loop pack you've downloaded, for example) is royalty-free.

You're welcome to make any noises you like with them, and then sell those noises without our permission. Pretty much the only thing you're not allowed to do with the loop libraries is to re-sell any of those samples without putting them into the context of a work of your own art.

Cheers,
Joel

Subject:RE: Copyrights and Sampling using Loops from Acid

Reply by: BlueRajah

Date:4/25/2002 3:42:03 PM

There's a lot of perpetual confusion about this on the boards, so let me offer my interpretation FWIW:

Sonic Foundry's Loops for Acid are copyrighted works which they have granted you, as the purchaser of any given disc, the right to use without a license and without having to pay any royalties. What this means is, you can't post any of those loops to some other web site that distributes loops to the general public. You can't sell those loops as you found them on the disc. You can't reproduce the discs themselves to distribute, either freely or for money, to anyone else. In short, you can't do anything that would impair or interfere with Sonic Foundry's right to sell those loops for its own economic benefit. Think of these loops as being much the same as a software program.

What this also means is that you can't borrow a friend's copy of an Acid Loops disk to use in your own projects, because that would be a violation of SF's copyright. Your right to use loops license- and royalty-free is dependent upon your status as a lawful purchaser of the disc(s).

However, you could take a loop from a disc you've purchased and use it as background music for your web page, or for your own musical work. You don't have to change it or edit it. OTOH, you can mash these loops any way you want in your favorite editing program(s), string them together, slice them and dice them, incorporate them into an original composition of your own. That's their intended use. And you don't need to ask permission or pay anyone to be able to do that.

HTH

Subject:RE: Copyrights and Sampling using Loops from Acid

Reply by: SPP

Date:4/25/2002 11:11:19 PM

Hey all. I have another question here and hopefully a Sonic Foundry rep will be able to answer this. What are the legalities with “distributing” loops when working on a collaboration project? Say I have an Acid project file with 10 loops in it which I’ve legally bought. I upload the loops and the project file to my friend in another state. He works on it a little bit, adds some loops that he bought which I don’t have, and sends everything back to me. Is that illegal? What about if he is only adding a guitar part that he plays, or a vocal line, but uses the loops in his own legal copy of Acid? Would I still be considered to be “distributing”? What if all I sent him was a mixed down MP3 file? The problem with that would be degradation of sound quality over time unless we used the original loops. I guess a work-around would be if we both had the same loop libraries that were being used in the project. Nothing wrong with distributing a project file, right? But what if we didn’t? Not that we would ever get caught doing this if it is illegal (who’s really gonna catch us?), but just for argument’s sake what’s the deal? Don’t worry all you anti software-piracy freaks out there...I’m one of you, and I don’t have one single byte of software on my computer that isn’t 100% legal. I'm just throwing out a hypothetical situation for you to chew on. Anyone from Sonic Foundry care to chime in please?

Subject:RE: Copyrights and Sampling using Loops from Acid

Reply by: SonicJG

Date:4/26/2002 10:47:10 AM

This is just my personal opinion, but...

I think that is a gray area, and is pretty close to splitting hairs.

I'd say it's a "use your best judgement and be honest" kind of thing. If you and a collaborator are sharing loops on a project, there should be nothing wrong with that. If you send hundreds of loops back and forth, and then use the other person's purchased loops on a separate composition of your own, that'd be against the rules. At the same time, should you be meticulously storing your loops as "purchased-by-yourself" or "temporary for collaborative efforts with person X only"? Sorting and cataloging loops in that fashion seems like it'd get in the way of the music creation process. In that sense, I'd say as long as you're not trading loops gratuitously, or selling them, you're in the clear. Or at least clear enough.

You sound like a reasonable person in this day and age of internet freebies, so I doubt you'd be abusing your rights in this case.

That's my humble opinion.

Joel

Subject:RE: Copyrights and Sampling using Loops from Acid

Reply by: SonySCS

Date:4/26/2002 11:09:39 AM

First let me say I am not a lawyer. My answer is entirely to the best of my knowledge.


Collaborating on a project is perfectly okay. It's your work, only here your is plural.

Sending him your MP3 is perfectly okay. You have made a song and said "Here you are free to use it."


Suzan
Sonic Foundry

Subject:RE: Copyrights and Sampling using Loops from Acid

Reply by: SPP

Date:4/27/2002 9:33:36 AM

Thanks for your response! I would like to do a colab with a friend who lives in India and we were wondering. Nothing planned as of yet though...just in the "what do you think about this" stage.