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Are Free Sound FX Sites Doing Things Legally?

by SleepDeprivedProductions

Recently, there have been a number of cases involving sound
effects companies that are offering "free" sound effects as an
enticement for people to sign up for their free accounts.  Often
times this is in order to harvest email addresses and names for
marketing purposes or to sell lists to other marketing companies.
 The problem is that some of these sites are using copyrighted
materials illegally.  When companies do this they are not only
neglecting their customer's rights to privacy, but also placing
them in potentially precarious legal dangers from the rightful
copyright owners.

The issue has often risen from people who are either tired of
buying sound effects legally, or who just don't understand the
legal implications and then post blogs on the web, solicit their
friends and colleagues, and get people to search their computers
for sound effects and then upload them to their newly developed,
free sound effects site.  Their intentions may be perfectly
innocent, giving producers access to a wide variety of sound fx
in one centralized location, but the real problem is that most of
these uploaded sound effects are copyrighted and subject to the
same copyright protections as music, movies and everything else.

There have been cases where people download sounds from these
free sites to use in jobs for their paying clientele.  Only later
to get embarrassing and potentially career ending complaints,
letters and law suits from their clients, who in turn have
recently been contacted by the copyright owner's attorney for
copyright infringement.  Not only can this devastating affair
make you and your company look unprofessional, it is highly
irresponsible as well.  Nobody wants to be reflected poorly in
professional circles, and in the highly sensitive environment of
copyright law and the legal issues surrounding digital media,
companies are coming down harder and people are treading lighter
than ever before.

This is why it is important to make sure that the sound effects
you are using have been obtained legally and with the appropriate
licenses.  There are many sites out there that offer sound
effects legally.  Some of these sites are free, others will
charge a nominal fee, and still others may create sounds
specifically for you that are licensed only to you.  It is true
that most of the time if you want a really high quality sound
effect you will most likely have to pay for it, but the fee is
usually small, ranging anywhere from a few cents to a few
dollars, and more often that not it is completely worth it!

If you do want something custom built for you, you will probably
pay more for it, but this sound will be licensed only to you and
your production and will most likely never be available to the
general public, unless releasing it was part of your sound
effects/Foley creation agreement or if some one steals it and
publishes it illegally.

Your best option is to play it safe.  Most of the time the
sounds you acquire from legitimate sources will be much higher
quality anyway and will thus make your production sound much
sweeter!

Adam Benson is the CEO and head engineer of <a
href="http://www.sleepdeprivedproductions.com">Sleep Deprived
Productions</a>. SDP specializes in Video and Audio Effects
and Post-Production. To learn more check them out at <a
href="http://www.sleepdeprivedproductions.com">http://www.sleepdeprivedproductions.com</a>

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