LEGAL FAQ

Copyright and Legal FAQ

Written by BlackD

Not to be used in a court of law. ;) This is purely informational.

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Table of Contents

1. What is a copyright?
2. Can any original work NOT be copyrighted?
3. What is public domain?
4. How long do copyrights take to expire?
5. Company A is letting other people copy their work so can I?
6. I just made something original. How do I copyright it?
7. I've heard about fair-use. Can't I copy stuff for myself?
8. Copyright doesnt apply in some places. Where are they?
9. Can I copy someone elses idea but change the name?
10. If it's free on the web - then nobody owns it do they?
11. What about MIDI files, can I use these?

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1. What is a copyright?

A copyright is an exclusive right to intellectual property of original works 
which authors retain for a limited period of time. This applies to any original 
work. It doesn't have to be good, it just has to be original. There are seven
distinct rights covered under "copyright" which the author retains.

  - Reproductive rights; the right to reproduce copies
  - Adaptative rights; the right to create derivatives of the original work.
  - Distribution rights; the right to distribute copies that have been 
      reproduced.
  - Performance rights; the right to perform the work publically. 
  - Display rights; the right to display the work publically.
  - Attribution rights; the right to take credit for and to be credited for the 
      work
  - Integrity rights; the right to prevent distortion of the works in attempt to
      bypass copyright.

These rights are the SOLE rights of the author, or the party to which the author 
licenses the copyright. Original works can be any intellectual property created, 
be it written words, music, art, movies.. anything.

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2. Can any original work NOT be copyrighted?

Yes. Titles, names, short phrases, slogans, etc, cannot be copyrighted. Anything 
short enough as to not demonstrate a minimum degree of creativity cannot be 
copyrighted.

For example, "Only the dead see the end of war" - Plato. This is a quotation by 
a philosopher many centuries ago. Of course if it was under copyright that would 
have expired by now, but it couldn't be copyrighted in the first place. It
doesn't demonstrate a large enough degree of creativity. This is up to courts of 
course, and this point is merely illustrative.

Likewise, a painter could paint a canvas in white paint, and then paint a square 
black box somewhere in the middle of it. This art cannot be copyrighted. While 
he has the right to put his name to it, he can't stop other people from painting 
black boxes - as it is not sufficiently original enough to derivate from already 
existing works.

However, in the case of titles, short phrases, etc - they CAN be trademarked. 
"Just Do It"(tm) is a trademark of Nike. It cannot be copyrighted on its own, 
but trademark law allows individuals and companies to pay for temporary
rights to specific words or sets of words, but this is covered later.

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3. What is public domain?

Public domain is any work that is NOT copyrighted. There are only a few ways 
this can happen.

  - If the copyright has expired (see #4 below)
  - If the work is the work of an government body signee to the Berne 
      convention, 1988. Such works cannot be copyrighted. 
  - The work doesn't fall under copyright law. (see #2 above)
  - The copyright may be forfeit. The waiver of copyright notice only came into 
      effect in March 1, 1988. Before that time, any work needed a copyright
      notice. Any work created before that time that doesn't include one is 
      forfeit UNLESS the author has since re-published the work or published it
      elsewhere WITH a copyright notice. It is difficult to be certain a certain 
      work has never been published with a copyright notice just because you
      find it in one place without one, and therefore, forfeiture shouldn't be 
      used as a ground for copying something.
  - The copyright may be abandoned. This very rarely happens. This occurs only 
      when the author and copyright holder of the work states expressly and
      overtly that he is dedicating his work to the public domain.

To expand on some of these points, first of all regarding forfeiture: This 
doesn't mean that any works created prior to 1988 that don't have a copyright 
notice, are void of copyright. Take the sprites for the aliens in the Space
Invaders game for instance. They are individual artworks, created individually, 
and have no copyright notice. However, they are part of a product which IS under 
copyright and as such, are copyright as well. 

Regarding abandonment, FREE works, are not "public domain". Freeware software, 
is NOT public domain. As long as the author retains ANY of the copyright rights, 
then the work is under copyright, but merely with the rights of distribution and 
reproduction waived. An author may waiver ALL copyrights except for 
attributuion, but this means the article is still copyright. Frequently we see 
notices saying "Feel free to use this however you want, but give me credit". 
That doesn't mean its a public domain work, that means its a fully copyrighted 
work requiring attribution. He has simply waived rights to distribution,
reproduction, adaptation, performance, display and integrity. You MUST give him 
credit, otherwise you are a criminal.

Free textures, sounds, etc, are all under copyright unless you have proof that 
the original author of those works expressly dedicated them to the public 
domain. If you find a MIDI on a website and wonder if you can use it since
there is no credit, NO! Not only because it has not been dedicated to the public 
domain, but because its copyright won't expire until after you're dead. (see #4 
below) 

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4. How long do copyrights take to expire?

A long time. But seriously, copyright protection lasts as long as the original 
author of the work is alive, and then after that for another 70 years. This 
means anything ever produced on any computer is still under copyright, and will
be at least until 2050. 

If you don't know who the author of the work is, or the work is anonymous, then 
the attributed copyright lasts for 95 years from its first publication or 120 
years from its creation.

In terms we as geeks will understand better: 
To explain this better, if you find a texture on a website and don't know who 
created it or when, then the date the website was created was the beginning of 
the 95 year. If this is indeterminate, then the date you found it is the
beginning of 95 years. You have to wait 95 years before you're allowed to use it 
without regard to copyright.

If you go to one of those Japanese "drawing" boards, then the date of creation 
is explicity stated. Since the work is anonymous in most cases, the copyright 
lasts for 120 years from that date of that drawing.

Works created prior to January 1, 1978, may be continuously copyright renewed by 
the copyright owner, so don't assume that in 2049 that they're automatically out 
of copyright because 70 years has expired - the author may have renewed the 
copyright any time during that period. And for works created prior to Jan 1, 
1978 - the copyright holder wether private or corporate has the right to 
continue doing so indefinitely.

There is a lot more to copyright duration than this, but work from these simple 
principles and you'll be safe. Different works attract different periods of 
time, but rest assured, no copyright attributed work created on a computer has 
yet expired its copyright status.

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5. Company A is letting other people copy their work so can I?

No. A recent case between Microsoft and the Lindows company brought this idea to 
the forefront, but confusing to many, that regarded trademark, not copyright. 
Under trademark law, if a company doesn't protect its trademark repeatedly, then
the trademark can be considered void to a certain extent. In that case, 
Microsoft tried to sue Lindows for use of a name which encroached exceedingly 
similar to "Windows". Lindows argued that Microsoft hasn't protected its 
trademark by allowing various other products such as "Windows Blinds",
"X-Windows", etc - into the market without challenge. The court agreed, and 
Lindows was allowed to continue using it's name.

However, under copyright law, this doesn't apply. Just because one person 
illegally copies a work, doesn't mean others can as well. All too often, someone 
actually applies for and gets permission from a copyright holder to reproduce a 
work. Then Joe Bloggs comes along, sees the copied work and doesn't know 
permission was sought, and thinks "okay - it must be public domain now". No! 
Copyright doesn't need to be protected in every case for the copyright to still 
hold true. Companies are quite entitled to let a thousand people copy their 
work, then when you come along as #1001, to sue your pants off. (figuratively
speaking) :p

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6. I just made something original. How do I copyright it?

You already did. Congratulations. It is placed under copyright law the moment 
you created it. After the copyright reform act of 1993, you no longer need to 
even register with the Copyright Office in order to sue people for breaching
your rights. 

But as always, try to include a copyright notice on your work. This makes it 
impossible for anyone to claim they "didn't know" your work was copyrighted. 
Generally in court if people successfully defend a position that they "didn't
know" (the "innocent infringer" defence) then the penalties against them and 
thus damages awarded to you, are less severe. They still lose, but not nearly by 
as much as if you plasted your product with "This is SOO copyright and I'm gonna 
sue you!" labels. 

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7. I've heard about fair-use. Can't I copy stuff for myself?

Yes and no. 

Fair-Use as described in copyright law, is a circumvention of copyright law, to 
be used only in cases where the restriction of copyright would otherwise stifle 
the creativity and discussion of the work which the copyright is protecting in 
the first place. The main points below are taken from another copyright FAQ, but 
I'll add discussion to them to illustrate the examples more carefully.

These are some areas where fair-use has been found by courts to override 
copyright restrictions:

  - Quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration 
    or comment;
      This one is a no-brainer. You're allowed to make some limited quotation of 
      a work in order to discuss it.

  - Quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work for 
    illustration or clarification of the author's observations;
      If you publish in a scientific journal, and people don't understand your 
      points, another author is allowed to quote your work to expand on and 
      explain the meaning of your work.

  - Use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied;
      Parody is primarily a humorous "take-off" of an original work. Weird Al 
      Yankovich is a performer who takes original, copyright songs, and changes 
      them for the purpose of humour. This particular use is considered parody. 
      However, if he took a song and changed the lyrics to create another 
      serious song, he would be breaching copyright. A substance of humor is 
      required in parody, otherwise its just another copyright violation - 
      breaching the "integrity" right of the author.

  - Reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a 
    damaged copy;
      Libraries have a right to this. You do not. As much as you think it may be 
      fair to make a copy of a friend's Far Cry disk 3 to replace your broken 
      one, its illegal. Instead, you have to send your broken disk into the
      manufacturer and ask for a replacement, usually at your own cost. If you 
      don't want to pay for replacements, seriously - try to avoid breaking your 
      originals. :p

  - Reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate 
    a lesson;
      If the teacher wants to make fun of your work by reading your stupid love 
      poem to the whole class, he's allowed to. Get used to it. Likewise, if you 
      find one of his, you're allowed to tell everyone about it too.

  - Reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports;
      This basically means, you can't sue the prosecution because they made a 
      copy of your website about bomb making while trying to get you thrown in 
      jail. Or anything similar to this scenario at all. Likewise, if you're 
      trying to sue someone for slander, you're allowed to make as many copies 
      of the slanderous article as you want. But, as shown in the Hustler vs     
      Evangelist case (i forget the name of the evangelist), you can't use these 
      copies for anything you want. You can't distribute them to people and say 
      "look what they said about me!" or else you'll get sued for breach of 
      copyright. You can only use them directly in legal proceedings.

  - Incidental and fortuitous reproduction in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work 
    located in the scene of an event being reported.
      If your art gallery is set on fire, and while filming the fire, the TV 
      studio shows some of your artwork, you can't sue them for breaching your 
      "distribution" and "reproduction" rights. This is incidental, and
      considered "fair use"!

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8. Copyright doesn't apply in some places. Where are they?

It's true, some countries didn't sign the Berne copyright convention. But that 
doesn't mean if you live in one of those that copyright doesn't apply to you. 
Many countries who didn't sign the Berne convention instead signed the
Universal Copyright Agreement (first instituted in 1952) and others have their 
own national copyright laws. Never assume because you live in a third world 
country that you're immune to prosecution. Or we'll send agent Mulder around. 

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9. Can I copy someone elses idea but change the name?

No, no and NO! Not unless you are creating a work of parody.
For instance, take these two scenarios:

   1) Created a game called "Last Dream". Made it just like Final Fantasy*, 
      integrated an identical combat system, even had little yellow birds that 
      you rode around on, then put it online for everyone to play.
   2) Created a game called "Final Farciacy". Poked fun at everything about 
      Final Fantasy* all the way through. Like having awesome full-screen, 
      earth-shattering, fit-inducing special magic combo attacks which deal 1 
      damage. And having a "Whack-A-Chocobo" mini-game. And the whole thing only 
      including about half an hour of gameplay.

Under scenario #1, you're breaching copyright, namely, the right of derivative 
works. Sued!

Under scenario #2, you're creating a parody, considered fair-use, thus 
circumventing copyright law. But theres a fine line between parody and copyright 
breach, and I don't have time to cover it all here. Unless your work is an
OBVIOUS parody, with no impact whatsoever on the copyright holder, then come up 
with something original instead. 

* Final Fantasy(tm) is a trademark of Square Inc. ;)

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10. If it's free on the web - then nobody owns it do they?

Yes, the original copyright holder owns it. Just because someone else is giving 
it away free, doesn't mean that the original rights have been waived. (see point 
#5 above).

While the whole "information must be free!!!11" movement is a romantic one, it's 
also highly illegal. EVERYTHING you find on the web, no matter how small or 
large or important or unimportant, is under copyright. The very fact that its
been published PROVES it's under copyright. The only cases where this isn't the 
point is if its immune to copyright (see #2) or is in the public domain (see #3) 
but these both rely on very specific and special circumstances that you're 
unlikely to encounter.

As already covered, even FREEWARE is not free of copyright. It's just works that 
have certain rights given away. Free music, art, code - is all under copyright 
unless expressly given to the public domain. And realise, most sites out there 
giving away stuff free aren't actually the original copyright owners, and 
they're doing so illegally. Don't join in and help make the problem even worse.

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11. What about MIDI files, can I use these?

There has been a lot of debate about this. Up until 2001, MIDI files were 
considered a computer program and not an aural reproduction of sound. Therefore, 
you could write a midi file yourself, using the tune of a commerical song,
and not face prosecution as you haven't copied the music but instead created an 
original program which - when decoded by midi playing software, merely resulted 
in computer sounds that resembled a copyrighted piece of music.

Even then though, you couldn't use somebody else's midi file without their 
permission - as since it was their original creation, the actual creater of the 
midi file had the copyright to that midi file.

However, the DMCA and other copyright acts since 2001 have changed all this. 
Partially because the instruments available to be used by midi decoding software 
are now of such high quality, that a midi file can in fact produce an EXACT 
replication of an original song, both aurally and note-wise. And partially 
because artists got sick of their music being ripped off and appealed to law-
makers to enforce their rights.

Nowadays, NO - you can't use midi files unless you have permission from both the 
author of the midi file, and the copyright holder of the original music which 
the replayed tune resembles.

However, MIDI licensing is cheap and easy. You can buy midi files off websites 
with unlimited usage licenses for as little as $10. In most professional 
organsations that are providing this service, you don't have to worry beyond 
about anything beyond paying them. They in turn pay the music companies the 
licensing fee (about 1/10th what you paid) for your usage of the midi file. 

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Copyright and Legal FAQ - Part Two

Written by BlackD

Doesn't apply universally everywhere, but don't try to bend these rules or
you may end up in jail. ;)

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Table of Contents

12. What exactly are trademarks?
13. I'm making a game with a name trademarked elsewhere. Is this legal?
14. So can I re-use "unregistered" "common" trademarks and get away with it?
15. If a trademark isn't protected, can I use it?
16. What is abandonware?
17. Where do remakes fall into all of this?
18. Are ROMs remakes/fair-use?
19. I've made my own original MP3 file. Do I have to pay a license fee?
20. I've downloaded a MP3. Can I use it in my game?
21. What is the difference between Royalty Free and Public Domain?
22. GIF files. Do we have to pay for them too?

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12. What exactly are trademarks?

There are two kinds of trademark. The registered kind, and the unregistered
kind. :) And there are two "sub-kinds", common and uncommon.

The registered kind is the one you'll be most familiar with. An "uncommon" 
trademark is a non-phrasal trademark. This could be an original product name 
like "Fanta" (tm) Coca-Cola Company, or a name like "Ronald McDonald" which is a 
trademark of McDonalds Corp. 

"The Real Thing" (tm) Coca-Cola Company is an example of a "common" trademark. 
Its a phrase or set of words that could be used elsewhere without intentionally 
quoting the trademark. Registered trademarks are purchased. You pay a fee to the 
Trademark Office, and you get sole rights to use that phrase or title in any 
sense connected with your company or product. These are afforded full legal 
protection.

The unregistered kind is where you make a game, and give it a name, and don't
want to pay a trademark fee, so you don't. In this case, it will be hard to
prosecute anyone for breaching your trademark. It may be original, but you would
have to demonstrate a clear market dominance and consumer awareness of your
orginality in the trademark in order to win.

Note: This FAQ doesn't cover visual trademarks such as logos. Don't use them
without permission. Simple as that.

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13. I'm making a game with a name trademarked elsewhere. Is this legal?

This question doesn't just apply to game titles, but also character names,
original locations (such as the Kingdom of Daventry), etc. 

Legal use of a trademark depends on how it is used. With "uncommon" trademarks,
then the answer is almost always invariably NO. There is no way you could try
and explain to anyone that the title of your book "Starcraft" wasn't inspired
by the Blizzard game of the same name. Likewise, you couldn't use the name
"Guybrush Threepwood" in a game of your own, even if he isn't a pirate, as it is
a VERY uncommon trademark owned by LucasArts and there is no court in the world
who would decide your "idea" for a character with the same name was purely
coincidental.

In the case of "common" trademarks however, there is a better chance for getting
away with it. Especially trans-genre. For instance, I could write a book called
"Diablo", and as long as it isn't about a paladin, a barbarian and a sorceress
teaming up to defeat the three prime evils, Blizzard isn't going to be able to
touch me. It's a common term, nothing to do with their product whatsoever, so
trademark law doesn't apply here.

This isn't always the case though. "Final Fantasy" is a common trademark, as it
COULD be used without relation to the Squaresoft product whatsoever. However,
"Final Fantasy" is already a cross-genre trademark. It has been used in books,
movies, computer games, music, etc. Even if your work was nothing to do with
RPG games whatsoever, they'd probably win a case against you if you used the
name, as they have a clear explicit dominance of that trademark across multiple
genres.

Now to us as computer game makers, we're generally dealing with the reverse
situation. Say you want to call your game "Armageddon". There's already a movie
which has that name as a trademark, so can you use it? Yes. As long as your game
has nothing to do with asteroids hitting earth, or deep-core oil drillers.
Basically, trademarks can only be re-used when the product re-using the trade-
mark bears no obvious resemblance to the original trademark, in any way which
could cause harm to the holder, either by repute or monetary loss. 

There's already a game called "Worms". If you made a game called "Worms Assault"
and made it really bad, then you can be sued. Even if it's nothing like the
original Worms game. Simply because they can argue that someone out there might
attribute your product to their company. So really - if you can avoid it, it's
best not to used trademarked terms in your product.

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14. So can I re-use "unregistered" trademarks and get away with it?

It seems like it would be easy to, doesn't it? An unregistered trademark is
afforded very little legal protection. An example of an unregistered trademark
is the term "Kilrathi", used by Origin Inc. in their series of space-opera games
called "Wing Commander". It's true - Origin didn't bother to individually 
register the term "Kilrathi". However it's an uncommon term, and even though
not registerered, Origin would have fairly good legal ground to stand on if you
used the term "Kilrathi" in your game. Especially if in your game, they were
cat-like alien enemies locked in an eternal war against the forces of mankind!

With "common" unregistered trademarks however, there's pretty much nothing they
can do. Origin uses the term "Nephilim" to describe another one of the alien
races in its game. Unless the "Nephilim" in your game are also a horde-based
alien invader exactly like the ones depicted in Wing Commander, then there's
pretty much nothing Origin can do to stop you using the name. If they registered
it, it might be a different matter - but as above, if its common - and nothing
to do with their product, then you probably won't get prosecuted.

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15. If a trademark isn't protected, can I use it?

Sometimes. As illustrated previously in the Microsoft vs Lindows case, an 
un-protected trademark can cause the trademark to be waived. However this is
not an indefinite waiver. Even though Microsoft lost that case based on previous
behavior, they demonstrated that they are still enforcing their trademark for
the time being, which means another comapny can't come along and try the same
thing again for a while yet. :)

"Tetris" is a trademark, but one that at this stage, would be very hard for the
original trademark owners to enforce. They haven't prosecuted any cases for many
years, and have allowed dozens of products such as "Welltris", "Gemtris", and
"Hextris" to make derivate works of their product AND their trademark, and not
tried a case against a single one of them. 

Basically, I can't answer this question until you go through court and the judge
decides. It is up to him as to wether or not a trademark hasn't been protected
based on a case by case measure of merits. As a rule, no - just because a
trademark hasn't been protected doesn't mean you can use it. If you DO want to
try, consult your lawyers first of all.

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16. What is abandonware?

Abandonware is a myth created by a bunch of folks who want to get kudos by
giving away other peoples hard work.

On the internet, the term "abandonware" is used to describe software (usually
games) that is no longer available for sale. This may be because the company
which produced the product has closed, or it has stopped selling and collecting
royalties on that product. Distributing or downloading abandonware is a crime.

Under copyright law, only the copyright holder may expressly donate a given
work (such as a game) to the public domain. If the copyright holder (in the
case we're discussing here - would be a company) hasn't done so - then the work
is still copyright. Even if the company closes, in most countries, the copyright
rights roll over to the government instead. And this copyright remains in effect
for many years still to come.

So how do some sites get away with distributing abandonware freely? Basically -
because the government has bigger fish to fry and aren't going to pursue
prosecution in defense of rights for a product they didn't create and don't
really care about. Generally, the only time folks will get in trouble for
distributing abandonware is in cases that company still exists. As they still
hold the copyright, not the government, they are far more likely to defend
their copyright - even if they're not selling the product anymore.

Don't support abandonware. It is piracy.

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17. Where do remakes fall into all of this?

Remakes is a grey area. Not in the legal sense - strictly, a remake is a breach
of copyright. HOWEVER, a remake MAY be considered fair-use if a case ever in-
fact went to court. Thus far, it hasn't happened. Any such cases have been
settled out of court, with the defendant withdrawing distribution of their
product.

The reasons why they may fall under fair-use is simple. If a game was originally
made on an arcade machine in the 1970s and is no longer sold or available to
the general population, then someone may decide to re-make that game in order
for it to be available to the public again. The company which holds the original
copyright is very unlikely to sue you in this case. While they have the legal
right to pursue a case, they know it could as easily be turned in your favor
under fair-use grounds, which just opens the way for a thousand other rip-off
clones to be created.

If you really want to create a re-make, try and seek permission from the company
which holds the copyright. Contact their legal department and tell them you love
their game, and want to remake it with current technology. Usually, especially
with older games, they really don't care. If you don't want to seek permission
then do so at your own risk, but never charge for the remake. Only give it away
freely. If you charge for it, then you stand to lose not only the product, but
they can sue you for lost income, and the income you've gained. By proving that
the product is still saleable, you've proven to the court that by people buying
your product, the company has lost money that they could have otherwise made if
they decided to remake the game themselves sometime in the future. 

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18. Are ROMs remakes/fair-use?

No. A lot of ROM sites tell you "you're allowed to copy this only if you own
the original ROM" or "if you don't own this, you must delete it within 24 hours"
which frankly folks, is a load of baloney.

As already covered in discussion of fair-use in part one of this FAQ, only
libraries (wether they be actual book libraries as we know, or even software
archiving houses, etc) have the right to make copies of a product for archival
or replacement purposes. Ever wonder why "All the great ROM sites always get
shut down!!!"? It's because, despite their proclamations that it's fully legal,
it's not. They get a letter from laywers and they run-hide.

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19. I've made my own original MP3 file. Do I have to pay a license fee?

It depends on how much money your company makes. ;)

As it relates to us as game programmers, if you wish to distribute MP3s as part 
of your game product, and you distribute over 5000 copies of your game (wether 
these are full version or demo are irrelevant), then you must pay a US$2500 
license to Thompson - owners of the MP3 compression patent.

If you wish to distribute MP3s on their own, then you must pay a license fee of
2% of the revenue generated by the distribution or sale of these MP3s. 

However, if your company grosses less than US$100,000 per year, you are exempt
from the $2500 licensing requirement for software. Which means, if you're making
freeware in your own time, or even if you're working for a company which grosses
less than US$100,000, then you don't have to pay, and don't have to worry about
it at all. Which means in 99% of cases with Blitz products, they won't require
a license at all.

Likewise with MP3s on their own, or used as a musical medium in a production
such as a video, don't require licensing if they're not generating any income.
The requirement of Thompson is only that you pay 2% of revenue generated by
them. If they're not generating revenue, you don't have to pay Thompson.

If you make a shedload of money (ie, over $100,000 a year) and still don't want
to pay Thompson a paltry $2500, then don't use MP3. Instead, use a public
domain format such as OGG, which attracts no licensing fees.

Note: This entire discussion assumes that you own the copyright for the music
contained in the MP3 file. It has merely been discussing use of the actual MP3
technology itself. Read on for discussion of copyrighted MP3 files.

For more information on costs relating to MP3 licensing, go here:
http://www.mp3licensing.com/

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20. I've downloaded a MP3. Can I use it in my game?

ONLY if it's in the public domain, or you have purchased distribution rights
for the music. The fact that it's in MP3 format is irrelevant to this discussion
and likewise applies to copyrighted music in any format, MP3, WAV, OGG, etc, or
even MODule formats such as IT, XM, S3M, MOD, etc.

By now I've already covered well and truly what it means for something to be in
the public domain. Music is an original creation and so falls under copyright.
If you don't own the copyright or distribution rights, you have NO right to
include it in your game.

But on the light side - many sites sell royalty free music very cheaply, so even
if you have no musical talent, you can buy distribution rights to music and then
use those tunes in your game. Just google for "royalty free music" to get
started.

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21. What is the difference between Royalty Free and Public Domain?

Public Domain is a work which has been expressly donated, with all of the seven
rights under copyright revoked by the author, for use by anyone for any
purpose whatsoever.

Royalty Free is a work which has had certain rights given up. Most often this
is the rights of attribution and distribution. This means you can use it in your
own products without paying for it again. You've purchased those rights, so you
can use it as much as you want and you don't have to credit the original
author.

However, Royalty Free music is NOT public domain. The original author still
retains a measure of copyright and therefore you are puchasing a usage license,
not an unlimited license to do whatever you want with their product. Before
purchasing royalty free products of any kind (wether its art, music, or any
other kind), read their licensing agreement to make sure that your usage of it
won't contradict what they'll let you do with it.

The most common restrictions placed on usage of royalty free works are:

  - You may not resell it or give it away on its own.
  - You must pay a licensing fee for each separate product you use the work in.
  - You may not take credit for it. Either give no credit, or give it to the
      original author.

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22. GIF files. Do we have to pay for them too?

The issue regarding GIF files doesn't actually revolve around GIFs themselves,
but rather the LZW encoding method used to create them, and to decode and thus
display them.

GIF files on their own require no licensing fee. However, if you write software
which writes or displays GIF files, then you must pay a licensing fee to 
Unisys Inc. As regards to BlitzBasic, I'm not entirely sure. I would imagine
that as part of our registration, BR pays licensing to Unisys Inc. for the
decoder included in the product, but I don't really know. This is something
for BR to clarify, not myself. :)

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