Freeplay music in Animation

[squide]

I noticed some teams using Freeplaymusic.com for their animations, so I decided I would check it out. I liked what I heard so I contacted the company to see if I could use their music. Here's the response I got:

Using Freeplay in this regard falls outside of our free terms of use. You will need to license our music for website streaming. I can let you have an educational discount of 50% on each license. Our standard web license is $85.00 per year, per freeplay music song used.

Let me know if this works."

I gave him background about FIRST:

Information about the awards can be found here:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...112&id=1135806

Basically the awards are to get FIRST Robotics students to learn
3D programs such as 3DStudioMax and Autodesk Inventor. Any FIRST Robotics participating school can enter the awards, which are then judged by
Autodesk professionals. I'm not sure what the prizes are this year, but last year they gave computers, and trophies to the winners.
You may have been wondering what FIRST Robotics is. FIRST stands
for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology". The program enables high school students such as myself to be paired with professional engineers, programmers, and graphic artists. Every year we are given a new task, and are given 6 weeks to build a robot to compete in the new task. More information can be found here:

http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/

So I think I explained the situation well. The teams I saw were using this service under their "Educational, Non-Commercial use" policy on their site:

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/terms_of_use.htm

I just wanted to bring this to the attention of teams that used this site for their music in their animations, so they don't get DQed.

[av11d]

"You will need to license our music for website streaming."

huh? If we are submitting it to FIRST, why do we need a license for website streaming? As long as we don't post the animation on our team sites, it should be fine.

[av11d]

Well, I just read that other thread, and our clip is under 5 seconds, so it should be good. Also, I don't think they post the animations online.

[av11d]

Also, I just read the terms of use:

"Internet Usage Using Freeplay music on the internet to promote a website that is selling or promoting a product, business or service, requires a license. Using Freeplay music for a personal website is fine, provided no revenues are associated with its use - e.g. no banner ads."

FIRST doesn't have banner ads and they aren't selling a product, that is if they even post the animation, which they don't. Again, the clip is under 5 seconds.

We will remove it out of good faith though, if some people don't feel comfortable with us using it.

[Koko Ed]

Personally, I would stick with programs like Acid Xpress. Less headaches with copyrights and the kids have major fun playing with it (even non animation kids love trying it out). The copyright situation is too sticky and it cost 710 a chance to enter their very well done aniamation last year. It's just not worth it.

[Felipe Reis]

Look what´s on the term of use on the site...
"Educational, Non-Commercial use
These rights are also granted for educational, non-commercial uses, provided such use is for an accredited school, college, university or trade school program. These reproduction rights (known as mechanical, synchronization and master recording rights) are absolutely FREE, and are granted in perpetuity."

[Joe Ross]

When you submit the animation to Autodesk, you give them a license to use your animation for whatever they want, with or without credit to you. Thus, this can't fall into the educational clause. If Autodesk were to use it as part of their advertising, you would certainly violate freeplaymusics Terms of Use.

[Felipe Reis]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

When you submit the animation to Autodesk, you give them a license to use your animation for whatever they want, with or without credit to you. Thus, this can't fall into the educational clause. If Autodesk were to use it as part of their advertising, you would certainly violate freeplaymusics Terms of Use.

why can´t it fall under the educational clause?
Can i use the music from freeplaymusic or not?

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Felipe Reis

why can´t it fall under the educational clause?

Since you grant Autodesk the right to use your animation for whatever they want, it is no longer non-commercial, even if it is educational.

[squide]

Originally Posted by Felipe Reis

why can´t it fall under the educational clause?
Can i use the music from freeplaymusic or not?

I brought the Educational Use to the attention of Freeplay in the eMail he sent, and as you can see from the reply in the first post, it doesn't fall under that when you submit it to Autodesk. I gave him links to the Copyright pdf, as well as the Visualization Rules, so they had a good background of the competition and if it falls under their terms of use.

[av11d]

Yeah, thanks for checking that out for everyone, squide! We'll make sure not to use it now.

[squide]

Originally Posted by av11d

Yeah, thanks for checking that out for everyone, squide! We'll make sure not to use it now.

You're welcome!

Here's a site I found permission from:

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/

Ray Wilson is the composer, he has a few songs to look at. Just email him, and tell him about the competition. I might use one of his songs or "compose" something myself. Good Luck!