Should we include some (properly licensed) songs with FoFiX?

[jstump91]

Some users are thrown off by the fact that we do not distribute any songs with FoFiX. (The real problem is probably that /data/songs doesn't even exist in a vanilla installation, but that's beside the point right now.)

There are songs out there with friendly license terms that allow free redistribution, even of derivative works (such as, say, a fretting).

One possibility might be some songs by Brad Sucks, which appear (I am currently verifying that this applies to the separated tracks and not just the final mixes) to be under CC-BY-SA, which makes it perfectly legal to fret and redistribute them and would allow us to officially include them in the game if we so desire. (CC-BY-SA is even DFSG-compliant, which would allow the songs to make it into any official Debian/Ubuntu packages we may do in the future.) I rather like his songs, and (more importantly) separated tracks are available, so the frettings can take advantage of all features of FoFiX.

Should we do this?

(If you like the idea but don't like Brad Sucks, feel free to suggest other music with friendly license terms. I think availability of separated tracks is a major plus for choosing his music, though.)

My brother has fretted a couple of his songs and has plans to fret more. (Don't go looking for them currently, though: they aren't posted anywhere yet.)

[NBSRDan]

The installer file size would increase dramatically. Other than that, I can think of no drawback to this.

The Newgrounds Audio Portal is a good source of free music.

[estemshorn]

The installer file size would increase dramatically.

Well, obviously we would have it optional, so for people who don't want it don;t have to deal with it.
Either have a seperate download for Fofix w/ songs, and one without. Or have it as an option for incuding on the installer

[blazingamer]

I would say if we do do this, offer the base fofix zip and an optional zip with just songs on the download page, then for the windows installer exe have a check list of things to install and one of the options would be the songs.

I've been wanting to do this for quite a long time. I'd also like to look into is getting permission from Tommi Inkilä's band to see if he'd like another song fretted this time for FoFiX instead of vanilla FoF.

[acrox999]

I would say if we do do this, offer the base fofix zip and an optional zip with just songs on the download page, then for the windows installer exe have a check list of things to install and one of the options would be the songs.

I've been wanting to do this for quite a long time. I'd also like to look into is getting permission from Tommi Inkilä's band to see if he'd like another song fretted this time for FoFiX instead of vanilla FoF.

Scenery Channel FTW! Brad Sucks got some nice songs too especially Total Breakdown.

[blazingamer]

I think a 5 to 10 song pack would be good. That's about 30-60 mb, I'm sure if people are willing to download a 3 gb free mmo FoFiX with some songs would be no problem.

We could also look into this site http://www.jamendo.com/en/ every song there is licensed under the CCL. We'd just have to contact some of the artists in some way and ask if they're fine with us making derivative works.

[acrox999]

Oh, I'd love to fret the songs if you guys are going to do this.

[drihscol]

if you can find chiptunes, i insist on fretting it.

[weirdpeople]

Awesome idea and I think puppetz should fret them just so we can have the highest quality fret, or get some to follow the rockband network charting guidelines To the letter

[acrox999]

Awesome idea and I think puppetz should fret them just so we can have the highest quality fret, or get some to follow the rockband network charting guidelines To the letter

Wat

Puppetz is not the only one who's good at fretting...
He is indeed good at fretting but that doesn't mean he's the ONLY one who should fret all songs for this. There are many other fretters that can help with this project like me, AlBelGim, obZen, Angevil, etc etc etc etc etc.

[kirezar]

aren't songs released by Johnathan Coulton released this way too? since harmonix distributes one of them with all the separate tracks for free on the creators website

[Asskickulater]

I like this idea :P and im not the best fretter but would certainly be willing to help ^_^

[weirdpeople]

Awesome idea and I think puppetz should fret them just so we can have the highest quality fret, or get some to follow the rockband network charting guidelines To the letter

Wat

Puppetz is not the only one who's good at fretting...
He is indeed good at fretting but that doesn't mean he's the ONLY one who should fret all songs for this. There are many other fretters that can help with this project like me, AlBelGim, obZen, Angevil, etc etc etc etc etc.

I know this I just speek my mind on here

[jstump91]

We could also look into this site http://www.jamendo.com/en/ every song there is licensed under the CCL.

The very first question you should ask yourself if something is under a Creative Commons license is "which one?" There is no such thing as "licensed under the CCL." The different CC licenses vary widely in what they allow you to do.

The BY and SA conditions are no problem. BY or BY-SA stuff we can just use as long as we give credit to the original author, and in the case of SA, we must use the same license ourselves. Since the songs are just data, SA is no problem. (I personally like to compare BY to the modified BSD license and BY-SA to the GPL. Both are Free in the GNU sense and BY-SA is the content equivalent of what GNU calls a strong copyleft.)

The only issue the NC condition creates for us is that it is not DFSG-compliant. This would make it impossible for the songs to make it into any Debian/Ubuntu packages we might do in the future, but otherwise it is fine.

The only troublesome condition is ND. The author may be willing to waive it for us, but this can complicate things, so I would stay away from ND.

If it doesn't have the ND condition, derivative works are explicitly permitted, and the author made that choice already by not using the ND condition. (Telling the author what we are doing is just a courtesy with a non-ND license.)

We'd just have to contact some of the artists in some way and ask if they're fine with us making derivative works.

That defeats the entire purpose (unless the license has the ND condition) of the Creative Commons licenses, as I said above. If the license permits it, we can do it (but may want to contact the author anyway as a courtesy, not to ask permission but just to say what we're doing); if the license forbids it, we should probably walk away due to other issues that might occur if the author waives it for us.

In summary, when suggesting CC-licensed songs, prefer BY or BY-SA; BY-NC or BY-NC-SA are OK but not ideal; steer clear of BY-ND and BY-NC-ND.

[Naemesis]

No, just feature a song pack or something.