wanna put a song by downloading it and putting into my scratch project. i heard that owning your own copy of music without paying is illegal. But will it still be illegal if i added it into my scratch project? i need A N S W ER S NEUICDWNUCBWUIC@

It shouldn't be - but please be aware that if the song is the main focus of your project, that isn't allowed.

But I'm not a lawyer.

If I'm wrong, please correct me

It is not illegal as long as you aren't making money off of it or distributing it to others directly

HyperGamerStudios wrote:

It is not illegal as long as you aren't making money off of it or distributing it to others directly

It is illegal to download and distribute any song for free without the creators permission according to US copyright laws.

ThatOneWeirdDude wrote:

HyperGamerStudios wrote:

It is not illegal as long as you aren't making money off of it or distributing it to others directly

It is illegal to download and distribute any song for free without the creators permission according to US copyright laws.

oh ok thanks everybody i appreciation 100

Yes, but the music is being used for a project not directly distributed, if it was a requirement for everyone to PAY for sound effects to use in projects then almost nobody would be able to make projects

Depending on how you use that content, you may be able to use it without penalty. Just be sure to give correct credit.

I would advise, though, to obtain the content legally.

HyperGamerStudios wrote:

It is not illegal as long as you aren't making money off of it or distributing it to others directly

HyperGamerStudios wrote:

Yes, but the music is being used for a project not directly distributed, if it was a requirement for everyone to PAY for sound effects to use in projects then almost nobody would be able to make projects

What you're thinking about here is the “fair use” provision for US copyright law, which allows for limited usage of copyrighted material without the owner's permission for certain purposes. You can read more about fair use here.

The problem with fair use is that AFAIK, the only person who can decide if something is fair use or not is a judge. It's generally better to avoid the chance of copyright nonsense at all by asking the copyright owner for permission (not likely, since Scratch allows remixing), or just not using it.

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a copyright lawyer. The information provided within this post is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice, nor should it be used as such. You should always contact a copyright lawyer if you have any question about something that may or may not be copyright infringement.

techekids3 wrote:

wanna put a song by downloading it and putting into my scratch project. i heard that owning your own copy of music without paying is illegal. But will it still be illegal if i added it into my scratch project? i need A N S W ER S NEUICDWNUCBWUIC@

Oh no no no! this here is not illegal! Scratch is safe for adding songs, it’s for Creative Commons here…

Abigblueworld wrote:

techekids3 wrote:

wanna put a song by downloading it and putting into my scratch project. i heard that owning your own copy of music without paying is illegal. But will it still be illegal if i added it into my scratch project? i need A N S W ER S NEUICDWNUCBWUIC@

Oh no no no! this here is not illegal! Scratch is safe for adding songs, it’s for Creative Commons here…

Flowermanvista wrote:

I know you're trying to help, but this is dangerous misinformation.

If you scroll down to the bottom of any Scratch web page and look under the “Legal” section, you will see a link that says DMCA. Clicking this link will take you to the DMCA page, which allows people and companies who believe that their rights are being infringed to send a DMCA takedown request to Scratch. Scratch will then determine if the request is legitimate, and if it is, unshare the offending projects. This has happened just recently, with a PAC-MAN project getting DMCAed by Namco. (I wouldn't recommend trying to find this project, as downloading or sharing it may or may not constitute software piracy.) Complying with these requests allows Scratch to take advantage of the “safe harbor” provision of the DMCA, which allows them to not be legally responsible for infringing content that their users generate as long as they take it down when requested to.

As for the user who created the infringing project, they will be fine. There is no such thing as a “copyright strike” on Scratch, and if you make a project that gets taken down, you will not receive any sort of punishment or ban whatsoever as long as you do not share the project again. Doing that is a very quick way to get banned.

This applies to any copyrighted content, even music.

ThatOneWeirdDude wrote:

HyperGamerStudios wrote:

It is not illegal as long as you aren't making money off of it or distributing it to others directly

It is illegal to download and distribute any song for free without the creators permission according to US copyright laws.

so wait its illegal to download the song for free right? just checking

techekids3 wrote:

ThatOneWeirdDude wrote:

HyperGamerStudios wrote:

It is not illegal as long as you aren't making money off of it or distributing it to others directly

It is illegal to download and distribute any song for free without the creators permission according to US copyright laws.

so wait its illegal to download the song for free right? just checking

Yes, according to law, but nothing's gonna happen unless the copyright owner chases down

PrincessPandaLover wrote:

According to law, but nothing's gonna happen unless the copyright owner chases down

So i guess that's the answer.

Looks like this topic has been resolved. I'll ask a moderator to close it to prevent future necroposting.
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pufferfish101007 wrote:

It shouldn't be - but please be aware that if the song is the main focus of your project, that isn't allowed.

But I'm not a lawyer.

If I'm wrong, please correct me

I've seen projects that are like
“_____ Music”

There are certain times when copyrighted music can be used legally - take a look at this website that talks about “Fair Use”

https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html

Fair use may apply for educational use that is not for profit. You might argue for that if a copyright owner objected to your use of their music. But it's not a sure thing and would have to be decided by a court.