Copyright concern!

[scott_karana]

No, this isn't an XCom related concern.
One of the songs in the soundtrack, PsymongR4.ogg, seems to me to directly use the melody of  Chrono Trigger's "At the Bottom of Night", by Yasunori Mitsuda, which I identified because I happen to be a fan of said song. I have ready a detailed comparison of the two pieces in question, but I need somewhere to host the 1.33MB of OGG Vorbis files that accompany it.
I am concerned that the composer of PsymongR4.ogg (AKA Recycled4.ogg), Simon Greene, may have inadvertenly licensed under the GPL material that isn't his to license. Thus to me the rest of his contributed Recycled music is suspect (though all excellent I must say! .

Is this all something to be concerned about, or am I just a worry-wart? :?

[BTAxis]

Well, if the two songs are too similar, we may have to exclude that track. As for the rest of the tracks, do you have any indication that they may be using melodies from existing music? If not, I see no reason to remove them.

[scott_karana]

I've seen no indication the other tracks are using existing music. I'll get in contact with Simon Greene, unless anyone here knows him, just to ask if he does recall using existing music, though.

[scott_karana]

Alright, here are the files.

Bottom of the Night's start.
PsymongR4's start.
The melody is even in the same key, and roughly the same tempo! There is indeed no bassline from the original, though.

Bottom of the Night's bridge.
Psymong's bridge.
I don't have the skill to strip away the accompanying instruments from Bottom, nor have I edited it into the form it is in Psymong, but the similarity is noticeable here, if not as striking as in the melody proper.

[Zenerka]

Scott,
as far as I know, if one uses the samples of other music, he needs to carefuly consider licensing.
BUT!
If one creates the music on his own (without using any other samples), everything is OK even if creates his samples which reproduces any well-known melody. Any melody does not have any license, only author copyrights, if any.
Am I right here or I am wrong? Not sure.

[scott_karana]

Hey, I've got no idea. I'd just hate for you guys to run into problems because of it.

[Zenerka]

OK, thanks for pointing this problem out, anyway. I will try to dig into such copyright issue.

[BTAxis]

Maybe it's not a copyright violation if he didn't use any original material, but it could be considered plagiarism.

[Destructavator]

Scott,
as far as I know, if one uses the samples of other music, he needs to carefuly consider licensing.
BUT!
If one creates the music on his own (without using any other samples), everything is OK even if creates his samples which reproduces any well-known melody. Any melody does not have any license, only author copyrights, if any.
Am I right here or I am wrong? Not sure.

I believe this varies in legislation by country.  I've studied United States copyright law a lot, and in the US reproducing a known melody, even with your own instrument sounds, isn't legal.  I'm not a lawyer, but I understand it to fall under what is called a "derivitave work," which is a copyright violation in the States.

I don't know what the law says in other nations, and I actually haven't listened to the music samples to compare yet, but in the US such similarities can lead to ugly legal battles if something doesn't sound original.

It could also happen to just be a coincidence, although that might be difficult to prove in court.

I will say that I like most of the soundtracks I've heard in the game so far, I'd hate to see any of them torn out.

If they sound too much the same, perhaps the author could make some changes to the melody?

[Destructavator]

OK, I've just listened to the samples, and I don't think we have too much to worry about - they don't sound *that* much the same, I think it is more of a coincidence.

Again, I'm not a legal expert, but in my experience I've heard music tracks from signed artists in the States that sound more identical to each other than this and as far as I know I haven't seen them throw lawsuits at each other.

Just my opinion...

-Destructavator

[Mattn]

so whenever anyone plays mozart on his piano - the person is violating the law?

[Destructavator]

It depends - There actually was one very high-profile legal case in the states where a band publicly performed a classic peice and got prosecuted quite badly, although Mozart and a lot of classics are now no longer under their original copyright because they are so old.  Copyright in the States is not permanent, it ends after so many years.  Performance for personal use, such as in your home and not on stage in front of hundreds of people is a different matter.  Even copying music CDs from signed artists can be legal, if it is just for personal use or for a backup.  The US legal code says quite explicitly that this is not a problem.

To get back to the subject, I listened to the samples and I don't think we have anything to worry about - I hear just a few notes that sound similiar, and it would take a lot more similiarity than that to be a problem.

[Mattn]

that's good news - thanks for checking that