A new Song for the Wild Surge

[ShiffDrgnhrt]

Hey, I was playing a rather interesting D&D parody called "The Bard's Tale" and came across possibly the best Irish Drinking song EVAH! I was wondering if anyone would be interested in making it one of the songs on the juke boxes in the Taverns. I supplied a link so you can listen to it and I have the actual file.
  Click me

[Talan Va'lash]

Who owns the rights to it?

[cbnicholson]

http://www.bardsbeer.com/aboutus.asp

My guess.. The Bard's Tale Beer company.  

see the bottom: copyright Bard's Tale Beer Company, LLC.  All rights reserved.  Sorry, ShiffDrgnhrt.  Its an great Irish drinking song!  I love this sort of thing too.

[ShiffDrgnhrt]

*shrugs, defeated, and beings singing it to himself*

[ShiffDrgnhrt]

Hey, wait a minute.  The song "Beer,Beer,Beer" isn't the property of The Bard's Tale developers, I just discovered.  It has been song at Renaissance Fairs throughout the United States and Great Britain and that means Layo could us it right?  Besides, Drinking songs are sung by everyone.  They are folk songs so there is no ONE author who holds the rights.

[darkstorme]

There's a difference between songs sung at events (fair use) and use in a recording.  This particular recording may very well be copyrighted, even if the song is public domain.  (Look at classical music, as an example.)  I'd be glad to be proven wrong, but I suspect legality of use is still a concern.

[Talan Va'lash]

darkstorme - 1/31/2007  2:27 PM

There's a difference between songs sung at events (fair use) and use in a recording.  This particular recording may very well be copyrighted, even if the song is public domain.  (Look at classical music, as an example.)  I'd be glad to be proven wrong, but I suspect legality of use is still a concern.

Incredibly short and simplified explanation of record copyright law:

There are three parts to the copyright of a recording
1 - The author of the music/lyrics holds the songwriting copyright. This can be shared between more than one party.
2 - The performer who played the music that was recorded holds the artist copyright of that recording.
3 - The producer/engineer (or far more often the record company) holds the record copyright to the recording.

Even if #1 is in the public domain it doesn't follow that #'s 2 and 3 necissarily are. However, it does mean that you could get a group of performers together and record the song and sell your recording without having to pay anyone royalties.

[wooley sluggs]

This is an old, old drinking song (I know it because the Pogues covered it, and covered it well.)  The tune is public domain though as was said before you can't use a non-PD recording of it.  Though you could try to track down a '78 of it from early last century (good luck...)

If you want to put it in the game you could, possibly, find the sheet music and make a MIDI?

[ShiffDrgnhrt]

That I can do.  If I make one, want are the chances of it being added to the game though?