Using someone else's music and "testures" in your map

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Freyja

aa
Jul 31, 2009
2,994
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Technically, no, you're not meant to. Depending on the lisence of the actual product.

However this hasn't stopped maps like Mariokart and the numerous pony overlays and models in maps. If you're not making a profit off your map I believe it can come under fair use. Even if it doesn't, these companies will not come after you for it.
 

Erk

erk
aa
Aug 6, 2016
433
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I sincerely (almost certainly) doubt you'll get legal issues if you use music from another game or band.

I've played on weird servers that have like music from Mario and Super Smash Bros.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
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If you have commercial music in your map, don't be surprised if every gameplay video of it gets ContentID'd and monetized and blocked in Germany, and for players who posted those videos to complain about it. But that's the worst that'd happen.
 

Startacker!

WANT ME TO BE REAL? MAKE ME.
aa
Jun 15, 2013
647
1,197
Technically, no, you're not meant to. Depending on the lisence of the actual product.
If you're not making a profit off your map I believe it can come under fair use. Even if it doesn't, these companies will not come after you for it.
I feel that I should clarify that it doesn't make a difference if you're making money off of it. Fair Use comes under if you're transforming the original message into something else. Like a parody or review.
 
Oct 6, 2008
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As a filmmaker, artist, photographer - I don't like people trying to use my stuff for free, after all it's how I eat. That being said, in this digital age, there's not a lot I can do about it to stop it from happening. Is it worth my time and money to try and go after someone? Nah. However, copyright is copyright but there is caveats built into the law about how items can be used. The law is written in such a fashion that will allow use of other people's work or else the economy and knowledge of a free society would come to a grinding halt. Look into your local jurisdiction about how copyright is treated. "Fair use" might not be applicable because you're not making a parody (making fun of it) or reviewing it. My experiences with Youtube, even for legit and documented proof of music that I had licenses to use, still had issues, for a time period I had to fight copyright with every Tom Dick and Harry that came out of the wood work saying I was using their stuff. One word of advice is be careful of Sony (or was it Universal? maybe somebody else - been a while now) they may come after you. I almost had to go to court over a youtube video - they dropped the potential litigation when I showed them my licensing contract.

Will you get sued in this case? Probably not, they have bigger fish to fry. However like one of the posts above says, if you have a seriously good map and Valve wants to buy it from you - they won't because they don't want to pay for the rights to use the soundtrack in perpetuity across all mediums to the creator/corporation that owns the music. The decision is then - is this music or images so critical to the game play of the map that the map can't be played without it? If the answer is yes, then you have a problem. If the answer is no, save yourself the headache in advance and don't put them in. :)
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
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I think as a general rule, any map that uses commercial music in a way that's somehow integral to the experience isn't going to be anything that Valve would want to buy in the first place. Even moreso any map that does the same with recognizable textures from other games.