Copyright questions about literature and music

[Essex]

Literature:
I would like to make a low budget commercial game about a famous novel by Herman Melville.
Is this allowed?
Do I have to buy rights for this?
Melville is dead since over 100 years.

What about music:
I have an old record of classical music.
The music fits very good.
The record was recorded in the 50s and is therefore older than 50 years
and the composers are all dead for more than 75 years.
Can I use this as background music for my game without paying for any rights?

I wouldn't want to risk anything...
What happens if someone tells me, that I was not allowed to do this...

[Calin Leafshade]

In most countries copyright expires 100 years after the authors death. (I think its 80 years in some countries) so the novels are all public domain.

Music copyright also expires after 100 years I believe so although the MUSIC in public domain the RECORDING is probably not. So you can use the music itself but possibly not that recording of it.

However if the record label that recorded the music is now bust and not owned by anyone else then its pretty much 'unclaimed' and so can be used freely.

I would love to hear an AGS game with music ripped straight from vinyl though.. that would be lovely.

[Essex]

Yeah...
But I have read somewhere that recordings that are older than 50 years are free to use, download etc. Can sombody confirm this?

[m0ds]

I'd say Yes-ish and maybe-no. Commercial could mix things up a little bit. You'll likely need to research and find out if the author has an estate or what not and if his works are protected in anyway, and the same with the music. It wouldn't surprise me if Warner Music Group have snatched up every old classical track in the world & put copyright on it.

As freeware you wouldn't be treading on anyone's grave, but you might be if you're selling it. Usually if that involves non-original material, of any form, you'd be required to have the authors permission. But without doing research I can't be sure - so let us know what you find. I'd have thought there would be a strong possibility. But I'll be honest I'm only arsed to chat about it right now and not go looking for the info again

A Shakespeare play holds no copyright but the print might. Music by Tchaicovsky has no copyright but the recording might. Also authors aren't really like game companies. They generally see adaptations as complimentary to their work. Pullman said to me once that the author who wrote Double Indemnity was asked about an adaptation; "Aren't you worried about what they've done to your book?" and he replied; "They've done nothing to it, there it is on the shelf."

Make the recording of your viynl and that could bypass any problems with the music. And don't rip the book authors title and just put "Based on a novel by" and you could completely erase the need to go looking for his/her estate etc. All the above are ideas, not facts

[Snarky]

It's generally 70 years after the death of the author/creator.

There's no provision for music going out of copyright after 50 years. Nina Paley ran into this problem when she made Sita Sings the Blues, which uses jazz songs from the 1920s on the soundtrack. Although the film is non-commercial (watch it, it's great!), she still had to license the music, with some ridiculous results.

[RickJ]

Music
Both musical compositions and their performance are copyrightable.  Music may have been written centuries before copyright existed but a contemporary [performance may be.
Look for the the specific title on archive.org.  They generally have copyright info listed and if works are in public domain.

Literature
From what you said seems like the book would have long ago been in the public domain.   There is a wrinkle in that more recent additions can be copyrighted.  I'm not a lawyer but since you are making a derrivative based on the original work which is in the public domain and not based on the revised work which is also a derivative of the original etc ... well presumably you are going ot use the characters and the general storyline but not the exact text so I think it would be difficult to prove infringement on your part ??

You can check the guttenburg project and archive.or for the copyright status ...
gutenberg.org
archive.org

[Nikolas]

In a music recording you get:
* copyrights of the music (the composer, or the publisher anyways)
* The recording copyrights (the CD).

Any of these still in existance and you can't use the music. The 50 years I've never heard of it!

Now, there are a couple of ways to go about this.

1. Search further for the same piece in a different, and older recording. Anything prior to 1923 pretty much is free. One way of checking about tHE MUSIC is to go in imslp (google it) and check the particular piece. If the score is there, then it's 99.9% public domain (they are VERY thorough)
2. Go to http://cocoa.fbk.eu:8282/ (if you are in Europe, cause I think it doesn't work outside Europe) and check for the particular piece(s). All mp3s there are in the public domain, and I don't think there's even an CC license attached, so you shouldn't have any problems.
3. And possibly best way to go about: Hire a composer to redo the piece. Depending on what you want it might be pricey, but with todays libraries it's more than doable to ask "anything". Thus you would have a new recording and performance, licensed or owned to you, and the music would still be copyright free.

[Essex]

About music:
This French or Suisse guy has a database with old registrations.
He proclaims that most of the registrations that are older than 50 years are free:
http://www.i12.ch/musiqueouverte/index.php/

http://www.publicsphereproject.org/drupal/node/785



About literature:
So it is really definite, that if I make a commercial game on a free adaption of Melville's "Moby Dick" and if I call my game "Moby Dick" aswell, I won't get into trouble?

[Arclight]

Look, copyright law is incredibly complex. Do not rely on anyone else telling you that "oh, now that 50 years has passed, I'm sure that whatever piece of music or literature you're talking about has had its copyright expire." That could be true, it could not be. It depends on where you are, where the work was copyrighted, and what the specific relevant statute says. You will never be sure unless you consult a lawyer or use only works which are certified Creative Commons (and you meet the requirements of the licence) or free domain.

[Snarky]

True, but Moby Dick is definitely out of copyright and public domain now. You can use it freely, as long as you don't take anything from the movies or anything like that.

[Dualnames]

It's generally 70 years after the death of the author/creator.

Damn, so I have to wait for 61 years to get the copyright..

[Danman]

In your case I doubt that some band that is been dead for 75 years would care and I am sure no Label would survive that long.  Not to mention any of the people that own the copyrights will actually see your game .

So I would say it is safe to do so. The worst that could happen is you get a Cease and Desist letter from this band coming back from the dead

So I wouldn't worry too much.. Copyrights really mean. If you directly copy their material then it is against the law.. I don't believe literature has copyrights in copying the story. Cause you could of come up with that story yourself. Only if you say I copied this Book done by so in so maybe then.



Edit: Well if that doesn't make you feel better then maybe this will make you feel better. In the world over 25 Million people do piracy. And only about maximum 20.000 of those would get caught. So I wouldn't worry. And that is monitored unlike AGS games. Well that was someones random estimation

[EnterTheStory (aka tolworthy)]

This is a problem I have all the time. As a rule of thumb, I don't touch anything that was made since 1900: even if something is out of copyright, you can still be sued. Lawyers can still bankrupt you even if you win.

There are several issues here:

1. Grandchildren. Successful authors (like Arthur Conan Doyle Edgar Rice Burroughs) have grandchildren who make a living off their famous ancestor. It doesn't matter that their works are technically out of copyright, they could still sue on trademark or a technicality.

2. The Internet is global. The 1923 rule is usually good for the USA, but in Britain it's life of author plus 70 years. Someone who wrote a book in 1900 might not have died until 1950. And in France there is a law against harming the spirit of a novel, and that never expires (it was recently used against an unauthorized sequel to Les Miserables where Javert survives).

3. Music has a writer AND performer AND arranger. Each one will claim ownership.

4. Art has to be copied or preserved in order for you to see it. The person or museum that copies it will often claim copyright on old images, based on the argument that they have an exception (for museums) or they have tidied up the image (for online collections).

What it comes down to is how much money you intend to make, or how likely somebody is to complain. If you're making a small scale freeware product then common sense should be fine - e.g. use obscure tracks and books from the 1950s or before. But if you're doing something high profile or commercial then don't touch anything that has any element from post 1900, unless you have a license in writing.

As you can probably tell, I think the present copyright laws stink. We have to live with it but we don't have to contribute to it. As a moral principle every game I make contains a license saying all my own stuff will be public domain after twenty years.

Anyway, good luck!

[Stupot]

It's generally 100/80/70 years after the death of the author/creator.

What if the author is long dead, but his or her body of works have since become the property of that person's family.  Or 'estate'.  I'm thinking of Dracula here.  I can't work out what the deal is with that book, and to what extent you can use it before it becomes 'taking the piss'.  Does family Stoker have any control over the use of the world and the characters Stoker created, or is their control simpy limited to who gets to print the book?

[Essex]

Edit: Well if that doesn't make you feel better then maybe this will make you feel better. In the world over 25 Million people do piracy. And only about maximum 20.000 of those would get caught. So I wouldn't worry. And that is monitored unlike AGS games. Well that was someones random estimation

I remember that "Garfield - Attack of the mutant lasagna game". I think the guy got trouble with the Garfield guys... Wasn't it like that?

On the other side some AGS games in the database already use songs and tunes by famous bands like the James Bond music in "James Bond - Who wants to live again?" or the Queen music in "Death of an Angel" and they never seemed to get trouble...

Couldn't one say that he promotes the music of an author with a game? People might run in the shop and buy the CD...

[Snarky]

Sure, you could argue that. It's still a copyright violation, though.

What are you asking, exactly? Is it legal? Is it morally justified? Will you get caught? (No, maybe, probably not.)

[Crimson Wizard]

Regarding music, I asked similar question a while ago, this thread might be helpful for you: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=39017.0


... or maybe it won't add anything new to what's already said... 

[Igor Hardy]

Couldn't one say that he promotes the music of an author with a game? People might run in the shop and buy the CD...

The thing with intellectual property is that the owner has all rights to decide how his stuff is used and promoted. Arguing that someone's doing him a favor without his consent is not something that is possible to put into normative, legal terms, no matter how stupid some situations might look (the recent King's Quest IX cancellation comes to mind).

In fact, I think that if it can be proven in court that the owner was aware of the violation of his copyright at one point, but didn't properly act on it (he considered it harmless for example), it might weaken his case against some other violation in the future.