I was looking for SFX sounds and discovered the Universal Studios Sound Effects Library, which is made by Sound Ideas and released in 1992. The webpages I found say it's a discontinued product.
I'd like to know if it's technically illegal or problematic to download it somewhere and use it in my project, without buying the actual CDs from ebay or something.
Some might say nobody would care if it's not a big project, but I want to know as technically and specifically as possible. Is it possible for it to cause any copyright problem later, to download it from any 'freely downloaded source' and use it in a commercial project?
I'm not a legal expert. Help is much appreciated.
Does anyone know the legality of using Universal Studios Sound Effects Library (1992)
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- KVRist
- 36 posts since 24 Mar, 2020
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- KVRAF
- 1583 posts since 26 Aug, 2019
IANAL, but I will say if you want to stay on the technical side of legal, you would need to buy the CDs on Ebay to use the sounds legally. My assumption would be (without reading the t&c) that owning the physical media conveys the rights to use the sound effects in your projects (and thus not owning the media means you have no rights). I'm surprised to see how much that set fetches, $150-200, when it shows up. The fact that people still pay that much $ for dead media suggests to me there are rights attached to the box set.
Problematic is different than technically illegal. Depending on how you use the sounds, they would be virtually impossible to detect in isolation in a mix or as foley, etc. The set is too old to likely be subject to e.g. Youtube Content ID. To put in a video on Youtube, very unlikely to be problematic for you. Depending on the material you are making and the representations or contracts you are subject to however, is it worth the risk? If I personally was doing sound design on contract, where there was a signed contract, I wouldn't chance it with dodgy material. Only you can say for your work though.
Problematic is different than technically illegal. Depending on how you use the sounds, they would be virtually impossible to detect in isolation in a mix or as foley, etc. The set is too old to likely be subject to e.g. Youtube Content ID. To put in a video on Youtube, very unlikely to be problematic for you. Depending on the material you are making and the representations or contracts you are subject to however, is it worth the risk? If I personally was doing sound design on contract, where there was a signed contract, I wouldn't chance it with dodgy material. Only you can say for your work though.