N
nesguy
Guest
I’ve always been a fan of electronic music, especially a lot of the older stuff produced in the 1980’s and 90’s for video games. I’m not alone in this, and there’s a whole communities of people online who enjoy this kind of stuff (the genre is called chiptunes). What’s been bothering me a lot lately is that a lot of the stuff that I’ve listened to over the last few years has been remixes of the old stuff I like. People will take these old tunes, arrange them in new and creative ways, and put the track out for others to download and enjoy (free of charge, I might add). This usually takes the form of instrumental transposing, or genre-shifting (i.e. making a jazz rendition of a classical piece). From what I can tell, this might constitute stealing on the part of the remixers (as in, it’s one lawsuit away from being called illegal).
One of the big websites that I’ve frequented to find this kind of music is OverClocked ReMix (ocremix.org). The site is run by a DJ who has set it up as a kind of repository for remixed video game music, and the site has had backdoor support from the video game industry for the last 13 years it’s been running. I say backdoor support because they haven’t been sued, according to them most game companies are more than aware of their site, and a few companies have even reached out to the community to use the remixes commercially (famously, Capcom used an OCReMix album of Street Fighter II music for their HD re-release on PS3 and 360).
OCReMix has just set up a campaign to fund the production of a CD of game inspired music that I’d like to donate to, and because there’s actual monies changing hands, apparently the copyright owners of the music came in and asked for royalties off the sales (which the site has agreed to pay and the campaign is apparently moving forward). Given that the site also hosts a great many albums worth of music remixes that this company owns the original rights to, and didn’t demand a takedown of all these files, it would suggest that as long as the site isn’t making a profit on the downloads, there isn’t necessarily a legal fight to be had.
So that’s a lot of background info, but it has me really confused on what to do as a Catholic. It’s clearly a legal grey area, as no company has set out to be the veritable bad-guy and go after this website, but it’s not exactly spelled out in US Copyright law if the stuff they make available is really a fair use or not (the site makes its own argument that it is Fair Use, but that has never been proven in an actual court).
TL;DR:
Questions that I’m struggling with:
Edit to add: The ARGH is my way of expressing continued frustration with finding things I enjoy being rather consistently morally questionable. Anime, tabletop RPG’s, and remixed music all top the list this year on things I’ve come to question my participation in. If this keeps up, I’m seriously going to take up gardening and listening to nothing but monastic chant
One of the big websites that I’ve frequented to find this kind of music is OverClocked ReMix (ocremix.org). The site is run by a DJ who has set it up as a kind of repository for remixed video game music, and the site has had backdoor support from the video game industry for the last 13 years it’s been running. I say backdoor support because they haven’t been sued, according to them most game companies are more than aware of their site, and a few companies have even reached out to the community to use the remixes commercially (famously, Capcom used an OCReMix album of Street Fighter II music for their HD re-release on PS3 and 360).
OCReMix has just set up a campaign to fund the production of a CD of game inspired music that I’d like to donate to, and because there’s actual monies changing hands, apparently the copyright owners of the music came in and asked for royalties off the sales (which the site has agreed to pay and the campaign is apparently moving forward). Given that the site also hosts a great many albums worth of music remixes that this company owns the original rights to, and didn’t demand a takedown of all these files, it would suggest that as long as the site isn’t making a profit on the downloads, there isn’t necessarily a legal fight to be had.
So that’s a lot of background info, but it has me really confused on what to do as a Catholic. It’s clearly a legal grey area, as no company has set out to be the veritable bad-guy and go after this website, but it’s not exactly spelled out in US Copyright law if the stuff they make available is really a fair use or not (the site makes its own argument that it is Fair Use, but that has never been proven in an actual court).
TL;DR:
Questions that I’m struggling with:
- Is this a near occasion of sin by downloading music that’s potentially stolen someone else’s musical works (based on a potential verdict in a law-court)?
- Is participation in something that is legally grey wrong in and of itself (non-specific to this case)? I.e. Is the attitude “Everything is legal until it’s not” a morally justifiable stance? What about when there is knowledge that the source of something is a legally protected work?
- Would supporting their CD campaign (that has a proper royalty agreement in place) be encouraging them toward sin regarding the rest of their site, and thus be wrong for me to take part in?
- I know they do host on their site (though I don’t download) many music files that certainly do have copyrights, in the form of the original video game music files that inspire these remixes. Is supporting the original remixes they host a tacit support of the illegal files, as well?
Edit to add: The ARGH is my way of expressing continued frustration with finding things I enjoy being rather consistently morally questionable. Anime, tabletop RPG’s, and remixed music all top the list this year on things I’ve come to question my participation in. If this keeps up, I’m seriously going to take up gardening and listening to nothing but monastic chant