In many of my games, I have background music, but I borrowed those from other projects. I usually search up the music I want on scratch, but sometimes it doesn't pop up. I thought about downloading from YouTube, but I realized that it might be illegal. Does anybody know about this?
Thanks, Green_bean123

I was reading the Privacy Policy and it says some stuff about strikes. Anything can be used as long as there is credit, but if there’s no credit and a takedown notice happens, you receive a strike. 10 strikes and the account is blocked. I’m not a lawyer so I’m not 100% sure…

Depends on if it is copyrighted. If there is a Creative Commons licence, you can use it for free but you must give it credit. Maybe check the description of the youtube video?

You are allowed to use music in your projects as long as it isn't the main focus of the project. For example, you can create a game with music in the background, but not a project where you just listen to songs. Also make sure that you give credit to the creator of the music and where you found it.

It depends on copyright. If it has a creative commons license then go ahead! Make sure to give credit. What is the video link? I can tell you if it does or not.

ScratchHelp23 wrote:

It depends on copyright. If it has a creative commons license then go ahead! Make sure to give credit. What is the video link? I can tell you if it does or not.

Actually if you post a YouTube link on the forums it just shows the video, nothing else. You can’t view the description.

mrcreatorluigi wrote:

ScratchHelp23 wrote:

It depends on copyright. If it has a creative commons license then go ahead! Make sure to give credit. What is the video link? I can tell you if it does or not.

Actually if you post a YouTube link on the forums it just shows the video, nothing else. You can’t view the description.

You can hover over the video and press the little “YouTube” button on the video's navigation bar to open the link in YouTube, where you are able to view the description.

ScratchHelp23 wrote:

It depends on copyright. If it has a creative commons license then go ahead! Make sure to give credit. What is the video link? I can tell you if it does or not.

Here's the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh2CKkDn-f8

Green_bean123 wrote:

ScratchHelp23 wrote:

It depends on copyright. If it has a creative commons license then go ahead! Make sure to give credit. What is the video link? I can tell you if it does or not.

Here's the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh2CKkDn-f8

The description might have something to say about that:

\***DO NOT RE-UPLOAD on YouTube or other platforms (Soundcloud, TikTok, etc.) It is strictly prohibited to use my covers/arrangements for Podcasts (Spotify/Apple Podcasts) Also DO NOT make remixes using my covers, and DO NOT illegally distribute my music to streaming platforms.
If you want to use my music for your YouTube videos, please visit: (Google Docs link)

In that document:

*** My Covers/Arrangements are NOT 100% copyright-claim free because I don’t own the composition rights, and are registered to YouTube’s Content ID to protect my work.
You will get a copyright claim (NOT A STRIKE) if you use my arrangements.

ALLOWED USAGE

You are ONLY allowed to use my arrangements as background music in your YouTube videos e.g BGM, montage, AMV, speedpaint, etc.
Please make sure to credit my YouTube channel in your description.
(channel has social media links)

If you want to safely monetize your videos, then find copyright-claim free music and/or legally license original music.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

STRICTLY PROHIBITED

Reuploading my videos on YouTube
Making extended mixes on YouTube, and “slowed/reverb/8D/Nightcore” videos.
Reposting on Soundcloud, Tik Tok, Instagram, etc.
Podcasts (Spotify/Apple Podcast, etc.)
Making Remixes using the audio of my covers (Hip Hop, Lofi, Electronic, etc.)
Illegal music distribution of my arrangements to Streaming Services.


If you do any of the following, you run the risk of your content being removed and possible legal action being made by music publishers.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Generally, when people say that it's “illegal” to use YouTube music in your project, generally they're referring to two distinct issues:

• The standard copyright stuff that others in this thread have already covered.
  
• The fact that YouTube's Terms of Service forbid you from using any downloader or external software (any YouTube to MP3 site) to download videos without permission from YouTube.
  

Speaking from experience, I have personally downloaded thousands of videos from YouTube using various downloaders and YouTube has never even sent so much as a warning my way - as far as I can tell, it is never enforced. However, if you want to play by the rules, then I suggest that on any video whose music you want to use, you look for an official download link or check the creator's website/socials (if they've linked any) for download links.

As for the copyright stuff, I'll kinda reiterate/clarify what others have said: Generally, you are allowed to use music (even copyrighted music) in Scratch projects, as long as you give appropriate credit (you are able to use copyrighted music because of fair use, a doctrine in U.S. copyright law that allows use of copyrighted material for certain purposes without the permission of the rightsholder.) The big exception to this is a project that only contains music without adding anything to it (a “music sharing project”, as the Scratch Team calls them) - these are most certainly not fair use and the ST removes these projects immediately when they see them. (Of course, it is always preferred to use music licensed under a Creative Commons license or other license that allows for reuse.)

The major caveat of fair use is that it is a defense - so if a company used Scratch's DMCA system to have your project taken down, and you wanted it to go back up on fair use grounds, you would have to go to court to defend your use of the material. However, this is very rare AFAIK, and I don't know of any notable/documented instances of this that weren't by Bandai Namco DMCA'ing a PAC-MAN project.

WARNING: I am not a copyright lawyer. The information provided herein is for informational purposes only, based on my interpretation of the law, and does not constitute legal advice or the creation of an attorney-client relationship. You should always consult a copyright lawyer for questions about copyright, especially if it has anything to do with money.

dhuls wrote:

Green_bean123 wrote:

ScratchHelp23 wrote:

It depends on copyright. If it has a creative commons license then go ahead! Make sure to give credit. What is the video link? I can tell you if it does or not.

Here's the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh2CKkDn-f8

The description might have something to say about that:

\***DO NOT RE-UPLOAD on YouTube or other platforms (Soundcloud, TikTok, etc.) It is strictly prohibited to use my covers/arrangements for Podcasts (Spotify/Apple Podcasts) Also DO NOT make remixes using my covers, and DO NOT illegally distribute my music to streaming platforms.
If you want to use my music for your YouTube videos, please visit: (Google Docs link)

In that document:

*** My Covers/Arrangements are NOT 100% copyright-claim free because I don’t own the composition rights, and are registered to YouTube’s Content ID to protect my work.
You will get a copyright claim (NOT A STRIKE) if you use my arrangements.

ALLOWED USAGE

You are ONLY allowed to use my arrangements as background music in your YouTube videos e.g BGM, montage, AMV, speedpaint, etc.
Please make sure to credit my YouTube channel in your description.
(channel has social media links)

If you want to safely monetize your videos, then find copyright-claim free music and/or legally license original music.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

STRICTLY PROHIBITED

Reuploading my videos on YouTube
Making extended mixes on YouTube, and “slowed/reverb/8D/Nightcore” videos.
Reposting on Soundcloud, Tik Tok, Instagram, etc.
Podcasts (Spotify/Apple Podcast, etc.)
Making Remixes using the audio of my covers (Hip Hop, Lofi, Electronic, etc.)
Illegal music distribution of my arrangements to Streaming Services.


If you do any of the following, you run the risk of your content being removed and possible legal action being made by music publishers.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

So would I be allowed to use it since it's technically background music but in a scratch project?

Green_bean123 wrote:

dhuls wrote:

~snip~

So would I be allowed to use it since it's technically background music but in a scratch project?

In this situation you might want to ask the creator directly.

I think the best option is to not make the song the main focus of the channel and make sure to credit the author or ask them for permission.

Flowermanvista wrote:

The major caveat of fair use is that it is a defense - so if a company used Scratch's DMCA system to have your project taken down, and you wanted it to go back up on fair use grounds, you would have to go to court to defend your use of the material. However, this is very rare AFAIK, and I don't know of any notable/documented instances of this that weren't by Bandai Namco DMCA'ing a PAC-MAN project.

Thank you so much for this post! Probably one of my favorite responses on this forum this year!

I just want to add one more thing to the whole DMCA situation. From my understanding, if some organization decides to go out of their way to issue a DMCA notice or whatever, the ST will just unshare your project. That alone should be enough to rid any legal troubles, so there almost certainly won't be any lawsuits or anything. Just don't reshare the project, and all it'll be is an awkward situation, much like the famous “removed Pac-Man project” and the few other known scenarios.

Austinato wrote:

Flowermanvista wrote:

The major caveat of fair use is that it is a defense - so if a company used Scratch's DMCA system to have your project taken down, and you wanted it to go back up on fair use grounds, you would have to go to court to defend your use of the material. However, this is very rare AFAIK, and I don't know of any notable/documented instances of this that weren't by Bandai Namco DMCA'ing a PAC-MAN project.

Thank you so much for this post! Probably one of my favorite responses on this forum this year!

I just want to add one more thing to the whole DMCA situation. From my understanding, if some organization decides to go out of their way to issue a DMCA notice or whatever, the ST will just unshare your project. That alone should be enough to rid any legal troubles, so there almost certainly won't be any lawsuits or anything. Just don't reshare the project, and all it'll be is an awkward situation, much like the famous “removed Pac-Man project” and the few other known scenarios.

I wasn't trying to imply that merely receiving a DMCA claim would require you to go to court, but I guess I'll try to be more clear about that next time.

And yes, AFAIK your understanding of the situation is correct.

Probably not, but it depends on the video’s license.

A more certain problem is that you cannot download youtube videos, under youtube’s terms of service.

You probably won’t get in trouble for using copyrighted music, but you should definitely look for a copyright-free alternative.

I want to use pop music in my project JUST for the intro…

That's generally fine. Since Scratch is a nonprofit and is used for educational purposes, Scratchers can use copyrighted material like music and game logos. Make sure to give credit to the original creator though.

Thanks!

It's not illegal because of fair use and what other people said.
It IS technically against YouTube's ToU… But they don't enforce it.
If the music IS posted somewhere for actual purchase, and you have the funds to buy it, I would recommend doing that to support the creator, (especially if it's a small creator), but that's just me and my weird ethics lol.