The Dink Network

Dink Smallwood Music Licensing Rules?

August 16th 2013, 02:01 AM
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Ok, so I know it's ok to use the original music from Dink Smallwood in DMODs. But does anyone know if it is ok to use modified versions of the original music from Dink Smallwood (especially the midi's not made by Seth)?

I ask because I plan to make a mp3 and a midi release of my DMOD (which means turning any original dink tracks I use into higher quality mp3's), and possibly remixing a track or two from the original game. But of course, I only want to do that if it is legal to do so.
August 16th 2013, 02:03 AM
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Leprochaun
Peasant He/Him Japan bloop
Responsible for making things not look like ass 
I'm assuming modifying them is perfectly fine. Though I'm not sure about distributing them as MP3s.
August 16th 2013, 08:53 AM
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Kyle
Peasant He/Him Belgium
 
Dude, it's the Dink Network, not the Skyrim forum where everything needs to be neatly licensed. Sure, mods won't let you submit blatantly copyrighted material, but everything about the Dink songs is fair game

For me, quality > whatever internet rule (in a small community).

Looking forward to your d-mod
August 16th 2013, 10:29 AM
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shevek
Peasant They/Them Netherlands
Never be afraid to ask, but don't demand an answer 
Most people around here don't care too much about licenses, but that doesn't mean everything is legal, strictly speaking. Freedink removed any music and sound files that weren't legal to modify or redistribute, so if you want to do it completely Right(tm), you should only look at tracks that survived this selection.

On the other hand, if you're only worried about "not getting caught", then I don't think you need to worry at all. Worst case, you'll get notified, and you take them down. Which would be a pity, but why would they come after you if they've left the DN alone for all this time?

Since I'm in the US now, I suppose I need to tell you that I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice; otherwise you will sue me if I'm entirely wrong, or something.
August 16th 2013, 11:15 AM
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The new midis for the freeware version were composed by Nobuo Kuge - you could try tracking him down and asking him. (Check out credits.txt, it lists all the people who did anything for the game)

HOWEVER, I'm with everyone else on that there's no reason to worry about copyright to such a crazy degree. It's common fare for composers to mix and copy other people's stuff, the original author would have to be a horrible prude to get a stick up their butt for something like that.

August 16th 2013, 02:08 PM
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Yeah I guess you all are right, there is probably no need for concern...

The new midis for the freeware version were composed by Nobuo Kuge

Ah, I didn't know the music was different in the early versions. Are there tracks in it that I've never heard before? Or just new tracks added to the freeware version?
August 16th 2013, 02:49 PM
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The commercial version had cd audio in place of some of the midis. Some of the best tracks were only added to the freeware version, like the awesome goblin battle theme that got so much love in the other thread.

Thinking more about it, though, I don't think Nobuo Kuge actually did a lot of songs. The goblin theme, the duck island song, probably 1 or 2 others would fit under "new midis for the freeware version", and not credited to anyone else. Beuc, Yeolde and friends already tracked the origins of the music in Dink a fair bit, so I'll just link the FreeDink page: http://www.gnu.org/software/freedink/doc/sounds/
August 18th 2013, 10:07 PM
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yeoldetoast
Peasant They/Them Australia
LOOK UPON MY DEFORMED FACE! 
It's shameless plug time! I did some covers of the Dink music and so far it's the only thing on my Soundcloud page. It sounds like you want to do something quite similar, so good luck.