copyright sound FX in old Public Domain movies?

wwjd wrote on 11/23/2013, 8:29 PM

I searched and searched, can't find any info about sound FX in old crappy public domain movies. I know the recorded music could still be under a separate copyright, but what about all the crappy sound FX?

Specifically, this is some old, dubbed kung-fu movies from 60's or 70's I want to lift the swosh/punch sounds for the comedy of it. I could make my own

Comments

B.Verlik wrote on 11/23/2013, 8:32 PM

http://www.freesound.org/search/?q=Kung+Fu+punches

larry-peter wrote on 11/23/2013, 9:52 PM

Sounddogs.com has been my go-to for vintage FX for years. Several vintage sounds libraries sell via that site. Not free, but music and sound FX at very reasonable prices.

wwjd wrote on 11/23/2013, 11:03 PM

I'm familiar with freesound, soundjay, etc, but as I am making a 70s kung fu movie, I'd like to pay tribute by using actual sounds from really bad, really old, public domain kung fu movies. I'm not selling my film, just vimeo/youtube. legal?

richard-amirault wrote on 11/24/2013, 10:05 AM

I'm not a legal expert ... no I don't think it is legal ... but I also don't think anyone will object or even find out.

FPP wrote on 11/24/2013, 10:15 AM

How can anyone tell the source or where you lifted the sounds from?

wwjd wrote on 11/24/2013, 11:31 AM

I agree. It could be any one of a dozen different, old, very bad, forgotten kung-fu flicks that were not worth copyright renew, or not even american.

I'm gonna proceed with my fun little edit and not worry about it. :) Just for fun and editing experience anyway, no selling or profit.

Just thought I see if any copyright people were here and knowledgable.

johnmeyer wrote on 11/24/2013, 12:00 PM

What you are doing is pretty much the same as sampling which, of course, is taking an extremely small portion of audio from a copyrighted work and incorporating it, with other sound, into an original work of your own. If you Google:

copyright sample sound

you will quickly find that sampling without copyright permission is quite definitely illegal.

I am not from the copyright police, am not a lawyer, and am not a copyright scold, but the law on this seems pretty clear to me (I'm speaking only of the law in the USA).

wwjd wrote on 11/24/2013, 2:41 PM

These are all very public domain olde movies, where the copyright has been expired for a while. usually, the company that held the copyright is no longer in business to even ask. Music recordings used in them is a different matter, where they had license to use that music that may no longer be, but the music recording still exists, is still copyrighted and can not be used simply because it is IN a public domain movie.

If this were to hurt or steal from anyone, I would not do it - as I would not like done to me - but there is no one claiming any ownership of these anymore.

Thanks for all the input! :)