Legal problems for a song

A person contacted me, the author of a song that is on my Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwpbQiUmThE) telling me to buy the right to Jamendo PRO or delete the song.

Besides freesounds I found this site a few months ago, and of course I immediately asked what were the terms for use and / or modify their songs.

They told me that there are two types of contracts: one is the use of the songs featured on the site with the only requirement to make credits (what I did) and that the use of this song does not lead to profits (thrive is opensource ), while the second concerns the purchase (money) of a right to use any song even if they are aimed at profit.

Obviously I fall under the first category I got the song and used.

Now this guy tells me to remove it, but I do not know what to do. I'm pretty sure they're right, but I need some of you may know better on the site. I would do it myself, but I'm not very good with English so I could not understand some important concept.

This is the discussion:

[REMOVED AS PER TAKEDOWN REQUEST]

Straight from Jamendo's FAQ :

Jamendo's FAQ wrote:

Creative Commons are licenses that enable musicians to give away their music for free while protecting their rights. They are easy to use and compatible with internet standards, and allow rights holders to authorize (or not) certain uses of their music, such as commercial uses and derived works.

He mentionned his music was under CC BY-NC-ND license. As mentionned on the link provided, it is a non-derived license and Jamendo allows it.

The question is, did you modify the song or just took it and put it straight on youtube ?

If it's the former, I think he is right that it isn't allowed.

If it's the latter, I think he is wrong and we are allowed to use it. We are non-profit and rediscussed recently for the website. However, I don't think it's worth bothering someone to use it's song. We can just remove it and come with another song for this part later on. It's really not a big problem.

Looking back at the message you exchange and the license, I think he talks about this specific part :

http://mollykleinman.com/2008/10/20/cc-howto-no-derivatives/ wrote:

One Exception

In general, the kinds of adaptations that the No Derivatives license prohibits match the definition of derivative works in the Copyright Act, but there is an exception: Songs used in video. No Derivatives licenses use the word “Adaptation” instead of the legal term “derivative work,” and include this language in the definition of “Adaptation”:

For the avoidance of doubt, where the Work is a musical work, performance or phonogram, the synchronization of the Work in timed-relation with a moving image (“synching”) will be considered an Adaptation for the purpose of this License.

Using an unaltered song in the soundtrack to a video does not make the video a derivative work, because the song itself has not been recast, transformed, or adapted in any way. However, the language above extends the definition of adaptation to include “synchronization of [music] with a moving image,” which means that as far as No Derivatives licenses are concerned, videos that use an ND-licensed song violate the terms of the license.

In that particular case, the image is not moving. If you just took his song, put it on the video and put it on youtube, I think you're respecting the license. I still don't think it's worth bothering if you just took his song. You can explain the exact situation to him, and tell him that his song will just be in a free game with its credit, but if he doesn't want, lets just take it down.

In my opinion, no matter what the licence says, if the author complains about us using it, we should not use it. Even if their licence alows us to.

The problem i see is whether this guy is the real author of the music or just a random troll. Probably contacting directly the page to ask whether they are really complaining.

Finally, the thing he is complaining about is you using it on a video. Maybe it is because youtube videos sometimes have ads on them, which will no longer fall under the free use.

Daniferrito wrote:

The problem i see is whether this guy is the real author of the music or just a random troll. Probably contacting directly the page to ask whether they are really complaining.

I also think: Is that real song creator or not? I think, it would not be logic to he doesnt let us use it, when licenses allow. It might be a troll.

I wrote that from the legal point of view we can use it. I sent him the link to this discussion .. in case you want to discuss it only has to register.

In any case, I do not take it off, because we are right.

P.s. I did not make any changes to the song

I think we should stick to music made by doggit, and our other composers (no legal problems there)

I agree with Untrustedlife. No matter whether he is a part of the company or just a troll, just stick to using one of your or Oliveriver's songs, that way we need not worry about this at all.

I am with Daniferrito here: if the creator doesn't want their music used in this context, we'll respect their desires. Our composers are sufficiently talented to write music for the game when it's needed.

I deleted the video of the song.