Legality of sampled sound clips in an iPhone app

Question

Does anyone know the legality of using sampled sound clips (specifically spoken words) from movies as part of an iPhone app?

Answer 1

Sounds like nothing you should do. For freesounds, look here -> www.freesound.org

Answer 2

The clips you'd be using would presumably be under copyright, which you can't use without the permission of the copyright holder.

In some cases it can qualify as fair use, for example if you're doing something like a news article or a documentary and are using that clip to demonstrate a point. But it doesn't sound like your app would fall into any such category.

Answer 3

I'm no lawyer, but if these are single words or short phrases, find someone who has a voice similar to the original actor, record an imitation (or get the original actor to do this) and you are covered.

Answer 4

It depends entierly on the country. There is no global copyright law.

In USA there is this fair use concept. But from what I've understood it's a very gray area and only really applicable in the court room. You can't claim fair use without having a judge agree with you.

In other countries, like Sweden, there is a more concrete allowanace for using small parts of works for quotaional purposes.

In all cases involving law: Consult a lawyer.

Answer 5

If you have to ask, it's probably not something you want to do.

Answer 6

If you give it away for free, US law MAY support it as fair use. I'd give it good odds.

If you sell it, it is NOT EVER fair use under US law. (Edit - see below)

AFAIK, even if you do not live or work in the US, selling it in the US (specifically the iPhone store) would make the product have to follow US laws.

edited:

to clarify, the courts judge fair use on 4 criteria:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2. the nature of the copyrighted work;

3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

(From Wikipedia, note that its license permits usage of its text for these purposes)

If you sell this, it would violate 1, above. The other 3 may mitigate your violation of 1, but it is risky. If you do violate it, you open yourself up for massive damages and an injunction against selling your product. Even if you win, it'll be a long fight, and likely expensive (even if you do eventually get court costs paid by the rights holder).

Thus, while it may not be true that it's not ever fair use, in any case such as this, I act as though it is true. Allowing usage within a commercial scope was intended to allow people such as movie/book/media reviewers to use excerpts and screencaps to enhance or demonstrate their points, etc.

The use of movie sound bytes to enhance your product creates an association between the movie and your product in the mind of the user, linking their existing opinions of the movie to your product. It substantially enhances your product, allowing it to stimulate another sense group.

The odds of getting pegged for infringement may be very low, depending on your app's visibility. The odds of defending fair use, however, will also be low, and the potential cost, IMHO, severely outweighs the gains (especially since it would be a much more likely target for litigation if it became popular).

Answer 7

IANAL,

But fair use would usually not apply to an app you are selling in the App Store. Fair use has some pretty strict requirements.

With respect to current US Copyright Law the prevailing case is the following:

In 2004 the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in "Bridgeport Music v Dimension Films" that ANY use of a digital sample of a recording without a license is a violation of copyright, REGARDLESS OF THE SIZE OR SIGNIFICANCE. This eliminated the "de minimis" standard i.e the "can you recognize the original?" standard.

I know it's whacky crazy. But that's the law. Write your congressperson. Hopefully another case will get ruled in conflict with this, and it will get bumped to the Supreme Court and then to Congress. And hopefully they will fix it.

In the mean time there's lots of stuff under Creative Commons licensing and in the public domain which can be used.

Or get a license.

Currently the App Store market is like the Wild West and a lot of apps are doing things that they won't get away with for long once the marshal catches up with them.

A good common sense standard for whether you would be allowed to use something is to ask yourself "Could I sell this as mine?". The answer is usually pretty obvious.

(Look up Fair Use in US Copyright and "Bridgeport Music v Dimension Films" on Wikipedia and save yourself some legal fees.)