SFX copyright

[SinSin]

I work as a sound engineer at a new recording studio. I know of a few people that say that if you ask then at least you are showing respect. also if you asked them and they said yes credits are nice..  Its a bit taboo but creating them is way easier  than getting permission.

Sin

[m0ds]

FoY uses SFX from Dark Earth. But its a freeware game, so whatever. Not necessarily the proper procedure or the best way to go about it, but I'd have been surprised if a single person could've named which game the SFX came from. That's not to say all of them did. I have lots of SFX from royalty free CD's (and they're very good, cos then you can do what you like, no credits AND put them in commercial things), and also the Games factory, who I'm pretty sure said there is no license on their SFX, or at least, so long as your game is free, you can do with them what you like. There's a hundred ways you could plead innocence when it comes to using someone else SFX, so really, I don't think you'll run into any problems.

Making your own is fun, and definitely worth doing. I know for the full game I'll be shooting about with a marantz recording strange noises!!

[WHAM]

Well, the message I sent Valve was very clear on few things:

1: If they do not give it a green light, I'm not doing it.
2: If they allow it, they will be properly credited in the game
3: I used a few extra sentences to promote how great they are.
4: I was very clear on how much of their work would be used and in what way, and WHERE (freeware game).

Maybe part three scared them off.

[Nikolas]

Ok, back to reality a little bit.

Why would Valve care about that? I reckon that they must be getting myriads of e-mails daily. I doubt anyone would bother... Sorry to break it to you. Very decent of you to e-mail them though.

As for finding a more unknown game, what about Blackewell, or the Shivah, or the Zone II? Pretty unknown games. Nobody will mind (or will they?)

Let's not jump to conclussions. As a sound designers in where I work, I buy the sfx from sounddogs.com . And then spent some time to make them my own. Cause otherwise they are too... common. Let's just not take lightly this kind of work...

On the other hand, really, Valve will certainly won't bother even if you do end up using 2 footsteps and 1 gunshot of their game...

[WHAM]

I dont know about Valve, but in other matters I have mailed Activision about another game, and replies came within a few days. I also doubt it is beyond them to send a simple "sorry, but no" back to me on Valve's part either. But that is only if they ever read the mail, or if they thought it to be worth answering to. Who knows, as the ways of the game creation gods are unknown, and Valve is probably the god of gods in this matter. If they ever respond, you'll know about it. Promise!

[Dave Gilbert]

Let's not jump to conclussions. As a sound designers in where I work, I buy the sfx from sounddogs.com . And then spent some time to make them my own. Cause otherwise they are too... common. Let's just not take lightly this kind of work...

Sound dogs is the BEST resource ever!  I purchased sfx from them, but unlike Nikolas I didn't futz with them.  And yes, they sound common and not-so-memorable as a result.  I've been experimenting with the sound effects now, adding things like echo and reverb and playing with the pitch, just to make the sounds a bit more interesting.

[WHAM]

After some more snooping around I decided to resort to free sound effects from the internet and tuning them with audacity for my own uses. Free, legal and... I wont say easy...