Mp3's in wads,which are legal?

Yea yea i know the rules,no Illegal mp3s from bands.
Heres my question though,I have the LEGAL Doom mp3s and tweaked em in speed and stuff.Are you still allowed to use em in a wad and submit em?

Umm, yeah. You tweaked them, so you are they only one in the world with those exact mp3's. They're not going to arrest you for putting an mp3 YOU made in some stupid doom wad.

commercial mp3s are illegial

game music isn't unless the owner says so. :P

What about background music? You know, the ones used to create atmosphere in a movie or game, not the ones that are direct songs from a band.

I'm generally under the impression that it is OK, especially with the rips at the doom depot.

It's really quite simple. If you didn't make it yourself, and don't have permission from the person who did make it, you can't include it, since that would be a violation of copyright.

The "permission" can take several forms; it could be an accompanying text-file granting permission under certain conditions, or it could be a blanket statement that it can be freely used for any purpose, etc. Or naturally it could be a message from the creator specifically granting you permission to use it.

Merely tweaking someone else's work does not in itself give you any right to use it.

johnnyrules182: He has asking about what is legal (and within the archive's rules), not what one is liable to get away with.

The archive's rules state:
4. Do not embed commercial MP3s as music in WADs. If you have made
| your own music as an MP3, or I can verify that you had it made
| especially for you by one of the folks in the community, I'll
| accept it as part of your wad.

and more generally:

6. In spite of the difficulty of doing so, you need to obtain permission
from anyone whose works you use in your uploads if it's not all
original work. If there is no statement in their text file that says
you can use something in your own wads, then you can't. Permission
will be considered denied if not specified.

That all seems pretty clear.

What about the PSX DOOM mp3 sound tracks? If I make a map with some of them, should it be acepted?

I'm not sure why it is a crime to put an mp3 into a wad. I think it would only be a crime if you extracted an mp3 from a wad. I mean, go to http://www.newgrounds.com and watch the flash animations there. Those are chock full of copyrighted music, not to mention the video game parodies which are full of copyrighted sprites (wait, so are pwads!) and noone is getting in trouble or persecuted for it. So why are people here?

Piezo said:

I'm not sure why it is a crime to put an mp3 into a wad. I think it would only be a crime if you extracted an mp3 from a wad. I mean, go to http://www.newgrounds.com and watch the flash animations there. Those are chock full of copyrighted music, not to mention the video game parodies which are full of copyrighted sprites (wait, so are pwads!) and noone is getting in trouble or persecuted for it. So why are people here?

Because it's illegal. Period The case you mention is also illegal and if anyone wants to sue those guys they will most have a lot of trouble.

Heh, this brings me to ask: Do MODs count? I've seen quite a few MOD music from games like Unreal/Unreal Tournament put into wads that got accepted.

AgentSpork said:

Heh, this brings me to ask: Do MODs count? I've seen quite a few MOD music from games like Unreal/Unreal Tournament put into wads that got accepted.

Strictly speaking they are as illegal as Heretic/Hexen graphics and all other copyrighted stuff. The problem with MP3's seems to be more the kind of music that can be bought on CD. I think many computer game companies think twice before they piss off potential customers for their next game. It's mostly the lawyers of the big record/movie companies that can cause trouble with illegal content.

AgentSpork said:

Heh, this brings me to ask: Do MODs count? I've seen quite a few MOD music from games like Unreal/Unreal Tournament put into wads that got accepted.

This brings up a good point.

But more generally, what about MIDI's taht we find for download on the internet

And just as a side note, we really need more MOD/S3M/IT music in ZDoom WAD's. They simply kick ass.

I brought up the subject of midis in wads a while back and the general consensus was that they were ok as long as credit was given to the sequencer. (and I believe someone said that midi isn't exactly copyright-quality music)

And mods kick ass yes, but they're also huge in size and not everyone has broadband.

The Ultimate DooMer said:

They kick ass yes, but they're also huge in size and not everyone has broadband.

How can that be the authors problem?

Well I guess it can be the author's problem if people are less willing to download their wad because of the big file size.

Of course, if the wad appears to have good quality, and has MOD/MP3/OGG music in it, I'd still download it, whether or not I had dial-up or not. It'd be different (to me) if someone put a huge mp3 in a bad level.

The Ultimate DooMer said:

(and I believe someone said that midi isn't exactly copyright-quality music)

That doesn't make sense. If you make something from scratch that involves some sort of creativity, then it's your copyright. Simple as that.

MIDI is essentially the same thing as sheet music. What are the legal details on that?

Copyright law provides protection to "original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium".

That concept is quite standardized in international copyright laws.
Sheet music and midi files both seem tangible enough.

Note that copyright isn't something that needs to be applied for, like a patent or a trademark; it exists as soon as the work is "fixed in a tangible medium".