App Store Copyright Rules

News & General Discussion
1

I am making a classic arcade beat em up style game. I have no skills animating, so I have taken pictures of me and some of my friends and have been animating them. At the end of each level there is a cutscene (video of us talking and whatnot).

In order to make the game more enjoyable I want to make the cutscenes as funny as possible. In order to make some of the jokes I would have to include some clips from movies, ore short clips from songs. I plan on putting the game on the App Store and I wouldn’t want the game to be taken off for copyright infringement.

Does anyone know where I can find the rules for this sort of thing, I’ve looked online and haven’t found anything. I found youtube’s rules on video usage but I’m not sure if the same rules apply on the app store. And I’m certainly not going to read the 200 or so court fair use rulings about this sort of thing.

Thanks for the help.

2

You need to get a license from each of the distributors of the movies or songs. Obviously.

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3

Yes, from a copyright attorney.

To be clear, that response is not meant as a joke. If you do not have the rights to something and are unsure if you can use it, your only safe bet is always to consult your copyright attorney. If you feel your project cannot afford the cost of an attorney, then simply do not do whatever behavior you’re worried could be infringing on another person’s copyright.

Also, comparing what YouTube lists in their terms of service to what you can use in a video game is comparing apples to cats. Save yourself the grief down the road and do not assume that because ‘fair use’ may protect usage in one particular situation means that ‘fair use’ would protect something similar in another situation.

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4

best advice is :

if something you want to use is not stricly labeld as free to use for commercial work, do everything yourself
this way you most likely won’t run into any trouble

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Or like I’ve said, obtain a license from them (in writing, of course.)

6

Hi,

Best advice is to seek professional advice but generally no, you cannot use anything whatsoever you didn’t make yourself without written consent or without a clear license attached. If you cannot find the license for it with the actual media, and you cannot obtain the license, then the answer is no, you can’t use it by default.

The law works by protecting things by default, not assuming its free if you can’t find the license.
This applies to everything.

This is really common sense so I’m surprised you lack it.

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