Bard performance ToS to include Public Domain?

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Originally Posted by Taranok

If you want to simplify it, it's the Mickey Mouse rule. If it's older than Mickey Mouse, it's public domain. If it's newer, it might be, but you would need to explicitly look it up. And it's called the Mickey Mouse rule because Disney is the primary motivator for extending the years on what is copyrighted specifically to protect their money makers, which started explicitly with Mickey Mouse. This is specifically for America and anyone with strong ties to America though, and international copyright laws might heavily complicate matters.

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This isn't even accurate, though, as you can do a quick Google search and find that there are things in the US still protected under copyright that were created prior to Mickey Mouse. That's why this is way too complicated an issue to boil down to anything simple, and unless you want to read and agree to a lengthy document laying out everything that is and isn't allowed, the developers wouldn't even sign off on something as simple as this.

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Originally Posted by Yew_the_Bard

Hello,

The way it is written, I am not sure if I would get banned for playing Mozart, Beethoven, or another musician that has been dead for hundreds of years and no longer has copyright. I'm hoping not, but it would be nice if the warning for bards included this information.

Thanks kindly,

Yew

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The devs will never clarify or give examples of what is and isn't allowed because it makes their job harder to police this issue and it weakens their own liability shield. Its important to remember the TOS is there to protect SE. If you play something copyrighted and it gets streamed for some reason then the lawyers can sue SE for the infringement because it happend in their game and with their provided tools; they effectively sanctioned and approved your actions. The TOS is there for SE to point to and say it wasn't allowed and the player acted without authorization.

That said, no territory SE operates in would pay attention to a copyright claim over something like Mozart and any judge would likely sanction the lawyer who tried. More modern things that have been granted a creative commons license or fallen into public domain are generally safe to use. If something is clearly in the public domain in the US and you're playing in the US (I assume) then SE isn't going to take action against it because you aren't breaking any US laws.

The reality is that SE doesn't really care too much what people play. The lack of any enforcement to date of players having concerts and playing copyright material is proof of that. SE isn't going to look into things unless you get reported for playing and even then they aren't likely to say anything. But at the same time, don't make things hard for yourself; don't stream it or upload it to youtube. Don't give the lawyers the opportunity to get involved because thats when SE will start to care.

"you are strictly prohibited from performing the music of any third parties. You hereby warrant that your performance using the performance actions will not infringe the rights of any third parties and you shall indemnify us in respect of any breach of such warranty. "

Public Domain is not music 'of a third party', as clarified by the next sentence that you warrant that no third party rights are violated.

Before people get all weirded out, this is standard legal procedure and rules, it's no different than youtube or anything else. This is just what is required for safe harbor protections for SE so they can't get sued for its users violating copyright laws.

" The lack of any enforcement to date "

We don't know that, most people who get talked to don't speak up about it and aren't always 100% forthright about the details. That said, safe harbor provisions also require they don't actively moderate, only responding to complaints as they come in. No one is likely to DMCA SE for your performance in Limsa Lominsa, so SE doesn't have anything to action.

All this is standard procedure. Literally 'nothing to see here.' Go play your classical free domain music in peace my dudes.

Also if you actually get a license for non-public domain stuff, you're golden.