Question about the standard akai libs and their terms of use

Hi all,
Like the subject states, what are the Terms of Use for the Libraries supplied with the MPC?
The libs im talking about are: the Standard discs (MPC2000, MPC3000, MPC60)
The MPC2000XL Drums (ambience, dry & gated), MPC3000 (natural , percussion, synth)

Are these lisenced?
Can i use these in sound production to resell?

I have not looked at the EULA's for those old Akai CD-ROM's but I'm sure it's the same as any current library license. You are likely free to use them openly with no royalty paid and no mandate to credit the sample. (Rarely a library will stipulate you have to credit them) in your productions you sell but you are barred from creating new sample libraries from their copyrighted material that they have licensed to you.

and apparently the sounds that come with the beat thang ask for credit and potentially royalties...

but I think metatron is right.. ps welcome back metatron.

Metatron72 wrote:I have not looked at the EULA's for those old Akai CD-ROM's but I'm sure it's the same as any current library license. You are likely free to use them openly with no royalty paid and no mandate to credit the sample. (Rarely a library will stipulate you have to credit them) in your productions you sell but you are barred from creating new sample libraries from their copyrighted material that they have licensed to you.

Could you or someone who has the original CD's please have a look and give a me a definete answer. (sorry dont wanna be a pain the ass already)
I believe i read somewhere years ago that, if say, i buy a fantom G synth or alike, i could use it for anything and everything including reselling the samples/patches as my own. Because of this, i thought the same principal would be applied to the MPC and its Libs....

Looking at the fantom-g copyright from the owners manual it states the following:

• Recording, duplication, distribution, sale, lease, perfor- mance, or broadcast of copyrighted material (musical works, visual works, broadcasts, live performances, etc.) belonging to a third party in part or in whole without the permission of the copyright owner is forbidden by law.

• This product can be used to record or duplicate audio or visual material without being limited by certain techno- logical copy-protection measures. This is due to the fact that this product is intended to be used for the purpose of producing original music or video material, and is therefore designed so that material that does not infringe copyrights belonging to others (for example, your own original works) can be recorded or duplicated freely.

Recording, duplication, distribution, sale, lease, perfor- mance, or broadcast of copyrighted material (musical works, visual works, broadcasts, live performances, etc.) belonging to a third party in part or in whole without the permission of the copyright owner is forbidden by law.

• This product can be used to record or duplicate audio or visual material without being limited by certain techno- logical copy-protection measures. This is due to the fact that this product is intended to be used for the purpose of producing original music or video material, and is therefore designed so that material that does not infringe copyrights belonging to others (for example, your own original works) can be recorded or duplicated freely.

Is it me, or is the copyright statement lacking in detail a bit? (interms or re-sampling and reselling as your own)

You're not going to find any commercial sample library or sound module that lets you effectively repackage the raw sounds into your own commercial (or free) library. The licenses typically restrict you to freely using the sounds only within your own musical 'performances'.

The fantom licence to me, simply underlines that. It's saying that it can be used to create 'original music' without infringing copyright. It's clearly not intended for you to (for example) just re-sample the sounds from it, tweak a little and make a sample pack to sell.

I don't have the Akai CD anymore, but I would be surprised if they gave you permission to use the sounds to make your own sound packs. That's just not how the sound design industry works - you do actually have to make an effort in sourcing your raw sounds

MPC-Tutor wrote:You're not going to find any commercial sample library or sound module that lets you effectively repackage the raw sounds into your own commercial (or free) library. The licenses typically restrict you to freely using the sounds only within your own musical 'performances'.

The fantom licence to me, simply underlines that. It's saying that it can be used to create 'original music' without infringing copyright. It's clearly not intended for you to (for example) just re-sample the sounds from it, tweak a little and make a sample pack to sell.

I don't have the Akai CD anymore, but I would be surprised if they gave you permission to use the sounds to make your own sound packs. That's just not how the sound design industry works - you do actually have to make an effort in sourcing your raw sounds

Got it. Thanks. After i made the post, i was thinking. nah, surely everybody would be doing this. right? hehe.

has there EVER been a case where someone got sued for using a sound from a sample pack in their music?? i don't think those user agreements really even mean anything in a court of law...

crossings wrote:has there EVER been a case where someone got sued for using a sound from a sample pack in their music?? i don't think those user agreements really even mean anything in a court of law...

I don't think it went to court or anything but I recall a controversy surrounding a Deadmau5 sample CD that if you read the fine print you couldn't actually use the sounds.

The iPad Korg Gorillaz app EULA also seems to say the same thing as the Deadmau5 sample disc. In both cases people were just like WTF, based on the reality of sample licensing like you alluded to Crossings.

Of the 100's of libraries I have only like 3 have any out of the ordinary stipulations in the agreement. In one case it's just they want a liner credit and in another it's because Loopmasters used old public domain movie dialogue and due to that it falls under a creative commons interpretation.

But yeah 99.9% of the time it's use the sounds freely but re-packaging another set from them is a no no.

crossings wrote:has there EVER been a case where someone got sued for using a sound from a sample pack in their music?? i don't think those user agreements really even mean anything in a court of law...

This topic seems to not be about using samples in music, that's obviously allowed, otherwise why buy the library in the first place. The OP was wondering if he could just take an existing library and repackage/tweak the sounds to create his own library to sell as a sample pack.

As for licensing agreements, when I first started selling sounds 12 years ago, licenses tended to be quite strict and many required some form of accreditation if used. Some even tried to dicate how much additional instrumentation needed to be added to a loop before they would consider it a unique musical composition.

Thankfully these days licenses tend to be more simple, i.e. if you buy the sample pack, you have a license to use the sounds however you want with no accreditation and no royalties - but you can't use them to make your own sample librairies. Still I do see some cringeworthy licensing terms floating around.

I think you have to be realistic with these things. While most license agreements should hold up perfectly well in a court of law, the practicalities of discovering possible infringements, combined with the costs of pursuing civil litigation make it generally prohibitive. Which is why I can't see the point in having a 30 page license agreement for a bunch of drum samples

I think with most copyright, you have to assume you CANNOT do what it is you want to do, without a letter from their attorneys saying it is allowed...

m0dit wrote:I believe i read somewhere years ago that, if say, i buy a fantom G synth or alike, i could use it for anything and everything including reselling the samples/patches as my own.

MPC-Tutor wrote:The fantom licence to me, simply underlines that. It's saying that it can be used to create 'original music' without infringing copyright. It's clearly not intended for you to (for example) just re-sample the sounds from it, tweak a little and make a sample pack to sell.

I think Tutor has it here. Roland supposedly sued the company (can't recall the name) who made those terrible sound chips for the now-defunct Quasimidi Corporation. Roland claimed the ROM samples contained in the chips was a direct binary lift from the Roland sound chips.

Having used Quasimidi devices I'd say it was quite possible they did, though Roland needen't have bothered since a flaw in the chip design ruined the sound quality (Even the cheapest Roland ROMpler sounds like a Stradivarius compared to a Quasi) and Quasimidi went under not long after. Even so if it was a direct binary lift to be resold in a new package that's still considered naughty.

Back before downloads, sample-packs were 60 minute CDs of one shots and loops that you would sample traditionally into your samplers. Most of the agreements were pointing to copyright infringements as copying the entire or part of the CD and selling it as your own sounds, but no problems if you used the sounds to create an original composition. Thats the part you have to look into. Some packs say that even though the sounds are royalty-free, you have to contact the company to let them know that you're using SNARE #15 on a track to create a license of use, most times its just a $5.00 notarized letter from your lawyer and they'll leave you alone but I don't think they want trouble from their clients, sample-packs are out there... well, to be sampled.