----- Quote ----- Does anybody know what the legal status of sounds actually is? I've heard that you can't copyright a sound from some people. Others think of them like works of art which are subject to legal protection. ------------------
Copyright exists in all media, so the sounds of Star Wars are protected. There are some cases where you can bypass this. On Wikipedia, for example, you can upload short music clips to accompany an article on, say, a famous musician. There are guidelines and if I remember correctly it's something like 30 seconds per clip or else some percentage of the total length of the track. It's basically the "fair use" clause of the copyright act. One thought is that copyright does not exist if you generate similar but different sounds yourself, or impersonate the voices, provided you don't copy the script. You could create a Star Wars-type game and you could probably even say so in your publicity material provided that you adhere to trademark laws and clearly state that you are in no way affiliated to Lucas Films. It was mentioned that since Lucas don't make an accessible version then it's worth the risk of doing it. I completely agree with this and would love to see one of the gaming giants threaten a poor blind developer. The blind community need a hero and the ADA (DDA in the UK) needs a test case. So I will stick my neck out and nominate someone else. How about it, Tom? Wars, Trek what's the difference? Someone has to stand up and tell the mainstream developers that they need to be more inclusive in their designs. Cheers, Steve ------------------------------- Azabat Software: accessible games for visually impaired beginners Web: www.azabat.co.uk Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel (UK): 07740 777 364 International: +44 7740 777 364 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.10/625 - Release Date: 13/01/2007 17:40 _______________________________________________ Gamers mailing list .. [email protected] To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can visit http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make any subscription changes via the web.
