Sample legality question

iamnotcool · Post by **iamnotcool** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:35 pm

I have a Rack/Pack that I wish to distribute for free. However, it uses five basic waveform samples found in Battery 3's sample library, which are just sine, square, triangle, sawtooth, and noise, all sampled at middle c. Each wave is easily replicated using any of the soft synths I have, so would the distribution of the pack that has these samples have the potential to land me in legal trouble?

RhythmSickness · Post by **RhythmSickness** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:48 pm

as long as you go around saying that you are redistributing battery's content in this way I think you're headed for a fall. To be completely above board, if they are so easily recreatable with any soft synth, then just re-create them and distribute your own work instead

OliQ · Post by **OliQ** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:49 pm

I'm sure it's technically illegal, but is anyone really going to know unless they read it here?

laird · Post by **laird** » Thu May 10, 2007 10:08 pm

WHAT!?!?

I copyrighted the sawtooth wave years ago! I'm gonna sue NI, and you are next!

Seriously, I can't imagine anyone staking claim to a single cycle waveform. And even if you used "features samples from BATTERY" in an advertisement, I think they'd sure you for using their name, possibly, but not for using "their" square-wave.

Technically, any amount of sampling could be illegal, but technically you could also get cancer and die from going outside in the sun for 5 minutes today.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu May 10, 2007 10:18 pm

I was waiting for this...years ago, in law school, I posed the question of what is protected content, and I joked that someday someone was going to copyright a sine wave and thereby have rights to every piece of sound ever created (as technically all sounds can be replicated by multiplying sine waves).

While that is an absurd slippery slope, we can get dangerously close to slipping down it. The real issue here is that you'd be marketing/selling samples that were created and are the copyright of someone else. Although easy to create on your own, the issue is that you did not create them.

If you were my client, the best advice I'd give you is to go ahead and recreate the single-cycle wave files. You could do it for you in about 2 minutes using Sytrus, which has a single-cycle output feature.

If you still intend to use the NI samples, you will get sued, especially if your product makes any money. At that point, you'll seriously regret not doing the samples yourself.

laird · Post by **laird** » Thu May 10, 2007 10:26 pm

Don't you think the sine wave has been around long enough for it to fall under Public Domain?

I'm no lawyer, but... seriously. You can't patent the element Carbon. And if you tell me you can, I demand 50% of the profits for generating the idea.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu May 10, 2007 10:34 pm

laird wrote:Don't you think the sine wave has been around long enough for it to fall under Public Domain?

I'm no lawyer, but... seriously. You can't patent the element Carbon. And if you tell me you can, I demand 50% of the profits for generating the idea.

Of course you're right, that it's a ridiculous notion. But in this case, since he has used THIS particular set of samples, he's vulnerable. Practically speaking, it's up to NI to bring a case and prove it. But why leave yourself open when its easy enough to do it yourself.

iamnotcool · Post by **iamnotcool** » Thu May 10, 2007 11:21 pm

Thanks for the answers guys. I'm just going to sample one of my plugins, rather than worry about NI suing me for releasing a free rack for ableton users.

Stay tuned in the next few days, as I will be uploading the fruit of my labor for all to enjoy.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu May 10, 2007 11:28 pm

iamnotcool wrote:Stay tuned in the next few days, as I will be uploading the fruit of my labor for all to enjoy.

Dude, keep that so-cal porn all to yourself...we're good god-fearin' folk here in the fly-over zone...

iamnotcool · Post by **iamnotcool** » Thu May 10, 2007 11:28 pm

on second thought, Ableton includes the same waveforms in Live's library. I'll just use those instead.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu May 10, 2007 11:30 pm

iamnotcool wrote:on second thought, Ableton includes the same waveforms in Live's library. I'll just use those instead.

now, german porn is a different story...that I'll welcome

iamnotcool · Post by **iamnotcool** » Fri May 11, 2007 4:57 am

nebulae wrote:
iamnotcool wrote:on second thought, Ableton includes the same waveforms in Live's library. I'll just use those instead.
now, german porn is a different story...that I'll welcome

bragi0 · Post by **bragi0** » Fri May 11, 2007 7:52 am

Simple solution

I generated these waves myself in Ableton, I consider them to be in the public domain

http://download.yousendit.com/395B8A1C6669BB13

Sine, Saw, Triangle, Noise and Square.

88.2kHz, 24bit, wav

If you want anything else, just ask

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Fri May 11, 2007 8:40 am

This doesn't makes sense. If NI actively sought protection for the samples included with Battery, I'm sure a LOT of songwriters would be subject to litigation.

Bombastic · Post by **Bombastic** » Fri May 11, 2007 10:35 am

agreed... why would NI put copyright protection on their samples? it would put off a lot of people from using their product and releasing final product from NI. Its ludicrous!

Hey, here I am, use my music software to make music, release your music to the public, hey you cant do that or Ill sue you! ??? Someone tell me how this works??