NA&EU/JP Bards and non FF14 music.

[ManaEterna]

Hello! Nice to meet you all!

To begin with, please let me explain the nature of this post.

I am Mana Hime from the Japanese server "Shinryu" in the ManaDC. I do translation for players events between JP and NA servers. That is to say that I help with organizing bard performance concerts. With performers from Japan and North America.

We are trying to connect both communities in our love for FF14 and music in general.
However there has been a point of contention between both communities, and I would like to ask about this from a purely official point of view.

In Japan it is very much a taboo to play non FF14 music as it is "technically against the rules." However there no such concern in NA and EU servers. We have been told many times that the GMs do not care about what songs are played. And I am wondering whether there has ever been a GM or administrator who stated this, or if it is simply assumed from bards not being banned after having played so much in big cities such as Limsa.

I do not wish to start a debate on this topic as I personally understand both opinion for or against this limitation. But I am curious is that has ever been an official response that reflected the general opinion of NA/EU players.

Thank you very much for your attention, I look forward to learning more about this topic.

Mana Hime

[Themarvin]

Hello! Nice to meet you all!

To begin with, please let me explain the nature of this post.

I am Mana Hime from the Japanese server "Shinryu" in the ManaDC. I do translation for players events between JP and NA servers. That is to say that I help with organizing bard performance concerts. With performers from Japan and North America.

We are trying to connect both communities in our love for FF14 and music in general.
However there has been a point of contention between both communities, and I would like to ask about this from a purely official point of view.

In Japan it is very much a taboo to play non FF14 music as it is "technically against the rules." However there no such concern in NA and EU servers. We have been told many times that the GMs do not care about what songs are played. And I am wondering whether there has ever been a GM or administrator who stated this, or if it is simply assumed from bards not being banned after having played so much in big cities such as Limsa.

I do not wish to start a debate on this topic as I personally understand both opinion for or against this limitation. But I am curious is that has ever been an official response that reflected the general opinion of NA/EU players.

Thank you very much for your attention, I look forward to learning more about this topic.

Mana Hime

It is any Music with a copyright on that is technically not permitted to play on the FFXIV platform, so if you want to play Bach or Mozart, Beethoven and others, then you should fele free to or own compositions, that has no copyrights or claims, feel free to.

[LianaThorne]

I've seen the stance of "Don't post videos of you playing copyrighted music online and you won't get in trouble." thrown around too, from friends that regularly bard. Not sure where it originated from but that's the logic I've been hearing.

[ManaEterna]

I've seen the stance of "Don't post videos of you playing copyrighted music online and you won't get in trouble." thrown around too, from friends that regularly bard. Not sure where it originated from but that's the logic I've been hearing.

It's quite fascinating to me. I've heard people throw claims like that, or "it's fine GMs don't care."
But I can't seem to find anything official on this. Even though one would expect that many questions were asked about this topic.
Or maybe it is just that no one really bothered with this in NA/EU to begin with?

[ManaEterna]

It is any Music with a copyright on that is technically not permitted to play on the FFXIV platform, so if you want to play Bach or Mozart, Beethoven and others, then you should fele free to or own compositions, that has no copyrights or claims, feel free to.

I'm quite curious about this point too.
I've seen people say that public domain is OK. But the text that you agree too when you unlock the bard performance system says:

When using the performance actions, you are strictly prohibited from performing the music of any third parties. You may record and upload your performance and hereby agree to license such recordings to us for use by Square Enix or others in accodance with the terms of the 'FINAL FANTASY XIV Material Usage License".

Does this mean that public domain is not concidered third party?

[Catwho]

Does this mean that public domain is not concidered third party?

My understanding is that if a piece of music has fallen out of copyright and is now public domain, performances of that music as still subject to copyright - so if you play Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star SE would own the copyright to any recordings of that performance.

[Curisu]

From my EU perspective, I like it to port into any big city and get Rick rolled, hearing any Anime opening or all other kind of music.
I often wait there and listen to it a bit until i figure out what song they are playing.

About the "against the rules" part I think they mostly think about it like about the 3rd party tools.
Dont talk about it and you should be fine.

No one is reporting them for playing copyright music because no one really cares and many people in the EU dont like the copyright system and how music lables abuse/uses it.


The part I personally dont like about the performences is that a lot of musicians using 3rd party tools to let them play the music without a mistake.
But they dont gain anything from doing it so I dont mind it.

[Greyhawk]

Under the terms that Square posted in their article from February 2019, they posted a link to the 'unacceptable behaviors' that a player can be banned for in the game. That said, here is the link: https://support.na.square-enix.com/f...6&id=5382&la=1

It says nothing about non-FFXIV music being played by Bards as a 'bannable offense'.

However, they also seem to take action against players outside of the game, as we saw last year with regards to Twitch streaming. I don't believe that their 'long arm of the law' should extend that far and even have Twitch/Amazon support it, but that's another conversation.

So really, it just seems that Square is going to take action how they see fit and do whatever they want to do. They've even protected that action with a specific paragraph in the link I provided:

"The following list identifies some of the activities that are prohibited in, or in connection with Final Fantasy XIV and other Square Enix services. This list provides general guidelines and is not exhaustive. When in doubt, Square Enix urges its players to err on the side of caution and to treat other players with civility and respect. Square Enix reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (i) determine which activities are prohibited or violate Square Enix’s policies or terms of use, (ii) enforce such policies and terms of use, and (iii) revise this list."

So as far as playing a song - yeah, you can but keep in mind you can be penalized for it, whether you play it in game, and/or post the video of you doing it online. Either way, they can take action against your account, or choose not to take action. They appear to have given GMs the ability to be objective, as the article also stated that, in this place: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...216f5aef769c60 and its given them free reign to enforce or not.

Their rules are basically 'clear as mud' because they can do whatever they want and get away with it as the game owner. Once they are approached by an interested third party, such as someone who may own rights to a song, then to protect that company from litigation, they have to act upon it.

On NA servers at least, you are more likely to be suspended because you sit and spam some obnoxious emote for an hour straight, filling up the chat box. Yeah, it's annoying, turn that crap off. :P

[Sove92]

You are allowed to perform your own compositions or compositions in the public domain. On top of that, the material usage license explicitly allows you to perform ff14 music (with exceptions to Answers, Dragonsong, Revolutions and their rearrangements).

Now, you are really unlikely to get in trouble for performing copyrighted songs, unless you subsequently upload it to a video hosting platform or stream it, but the possibility is there.

This is a long blog post but explains the copyrights surrounding this really well.
https://geeklawjournal.wordpress.com...forming-music/

[Enla]

To my knowledge no one has been banned for playing copyrighted songs on any NA/EU server. It is possible that someone was punished for playing them and simply decided to quietly accept it. But given how vocal the NA portion of the community tends to be, I find that very unlikely to be the norm. The community would have been made aware in some fashion and would have raised a stink about it almost immediately. Likewise, I struggle to imagine very many in the NA community even know the developers have a rule against 3rd party music. So in that sense it's unlikely that anyone is reporting them to begin with.