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Do Resource Packs infringe on Copyrights?

Published Jul 5th, 2013, 7/5/13 5:46 am
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Doomslicer's Avatar Doomslicer
Level 43 : Master Herobrine
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As most of you know, the latest update to our beloved Minecraft has introduced, among other things, resource packs, which allow editing of not just textures, but also sound and credits and names and languages.

Anyway, I'm curious, is it legal to include certain music in a Resource Pack? I've seen several already that use music tracks I know are from official soundtracks. Or is it somewhat hazy? Do you guys think it's fine to use copyrighted music for your Resource Packs, or are you not sure?

I for one really hope there's some sort of legal way for this, I'd love to have soundtracks from musically-notable franchises such as Sonic, Portal, or Kingdom Hearts.
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tnzski
• 07/13/2013 1:18 am
• Level 1 : New Miner
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What's the copyright rule for just singing a copyrighted song and putting it in the resource pack? Could I sing a popular song or part of a song and put it in, say, a music disk?
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Doomslicer
• 07/14/2013 9:42 pm
• Level 43 : Master Herobrine
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If you yourself made the recording of that song (that someone else composed), and don't make any profit off it (so don't use Adfly for this one), then I believe it's alright.
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Ash
• 07/05/2013 7:48 am
She/Her • Level 66 : High Grandmaster uwu Kitten
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It regards to copyright: unless you have the explicit permission from the original creator you cannot use it in a commercial sense. If you use it for non-profit, private use it is fine, however uploading a resource pack on here isn't private, and if the original creator wishes to do so they can request for you to take it down.
As well as that, I'm not sure how PMC will handle the "sound and language" aspect of the resource packs. I'm assuming that using sounds that are not originally created will be subjected to the originality rule, if even allowed at all on here, as sounds can be very hard to track down.
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ImaLittleCreeper
• 07/05/2013 6:26 am
• Level 44 : Master Wolf Whisperer
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It's not illegal unless you make money off of it.
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G-Fiti
• 07/05/2013 8:00 pm
• Level 55 : Grandmaster Kitten
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It may be legal for private use.

But please keep in mind that you are not allowed to upload such content to PMC. Everything uploaded on our site must be 100% original.
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Doomslicer
• 07/05/2013 6:35 am
• Level 43 : Master Herobrine
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There's actually quite a debate over that.
But I guess if one doesn't use adlfy or something similar, that could cover it.
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G-Fiti
• 07/05/2013 8:00 pm
• Level 55 : Grandmaster Kitten
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It may be legal for private use.

But please keep in mind that you are not allowed to upload such content to PMC. Everything uploaded on our site must be 100% original.
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ImaLittleCreeper
• 07/05/2013 6:36 am
• Level 44 : Master Wolf Whisperer
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But also many companies (video game or not) do not release information as to if it is or not, and no law abides that it could not be done. Making it 100% legal.
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Doomslicer
• 07/05/2013 6:40 am
• Level 43 : Master Herobrine
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I happen to know that Square Enix is quite picky about that, e.g. on Overclocked Remixes, you can't make a song that uses any sound effects whatsoever from one of their games (e.g. beatbox based on the sound of a keyblade slash).
No other company has that status on the site.
Which is a shame, because Square Enix games have some of the best soundtracks.
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ImaLittleCreeper
• 07/05/2013 6:43 am
• Level 44 : Master Wolf Whisperer
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Thats why I said 'many' :P And it's true they do have a great sound track.
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