Would it be okay to use real music?

[MYKAYEL]

I have found a few songs here in my country that would be good for the intro of my game. Would it be okay if I were to use the song? Or would it be considered ilegal?

[Nacho]

Our lawyers staff need more info...  :  Specify the kind of song. I am quite sure that regional tunes would be ok. What do you mean when you say "A few songs from my country"?

[Tuomas]

it would be illegal as long as they're copyrighted, and in this case I suppse they are.

[BOYD1981]

there seems to be a lot of copyright related questions popping up lately most of, if not all relating to the use of 'copyrighted' music.
personally i wouldn't think twice before using an excerpt or entire song that i didn't create (the same as most people might use a midi version of a song they didn't create themselves without first asking the person that made it), i'm not making any profit from the game and people wouldn't be downloading it just for the music, and unless i were to go ranting about the music used in the game on every website possible it's very unlikely that the artist nor the copyright holder will find out about it, and if they do find out the worst they'll do is ask you to remove it from the game which is stupid as they can't contact everyone that has already downloaded it and ask them to delete it.
on the other hand, if it's an unsigned artist (such as those found on mp3.com and the like) it wouldn't hurt to contact them and ask for permission to use the song saying that you'll mention them in the game, as long as the game is free and there's the chance of free publicity and getting more people downloading their stuff they probably won't mind, and if they do atleast you'll find out before you use it.
another option would be to use a placeholder midi or something and allow people to acquire the song themselves with details on how to replace the midi...

[pipan]

Check out this thread, http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=26746.0.

Even if it is illegal I think the chance of being caught by law would be pretty small but it always feels better to be on the legal side.