Music licensing questions.

[bugbrain_04]

Ok, here's my situation.

I'm a student, and for one of my assignments I arranged "Farewell Hyrule King" from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. So far as I have found the piece was composed by Koji Kondo.

When my instructor listened to it, he said he would love to put it on the school's website as a demo student work. This was, as you can imagine, quite flattering, and I would love to let him do so. The problem, of course, is the copyright. Though I'm quite sure that no action would be taken were it found by Kondo-san or Nintendo or even ASCAP (of whom Nintendo of America is a member), but the school still refuses to host it until the mechanical license has been obtained. Perfectly understandable, if you ask me.

What I cannot find is who I should contact to request this license from. I have called Nintendo of America, and all they will tell me is their written policy of denying all requests to use their copyrighted material. Honestly, I don't even know if Nintendo of America would have jurisdiction over this matter, since the composition, not to mention the entire game, was made in Japan.

The only company similar to ASCAP that I've founf in Japan is JASRAC, but like ASCAP, they seem to deal only with the performance licenses rather than mechanical.

Can anyone help me here? Kondo-san doesn't even seem to have his own website, or at least not one I can find. I can't find the publisher of the composition, any Japanese company that deals with mechanical licenses and might work with Nintendo, or anything. I've hit a dead end. If anyone could help me out with this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

~Josh~

[On the Loose]

Your treading on very dangerous ground, like you say 99 out of 100 would be lpeased to have their composition attracting attention, but it only takes one, and in your situation I wouldn't take the risk. Perhaps it was only meant for the enjoyment of you and your close friends. What you create using your own composition will turn out much better.

[bugbrain_04]

I would still like to try to get ahold of the license so I could put it on the website and not worry about getting in trouble. I won't be doing that, or sending "digital copies" to my friends, or even posting it here for review until I have a license to do so.

[brandondrury]

Your treading on very dangerous ground

No you're not, not in a realistic sense....maybe in a theoretical sense.

The standard protocal for anything the MPAA, RIAA, or whoever-elseAA finds to be in violation of the copywrite is to send a DMCA to the hosting provider. They will then ask you to remove the file. That's what happens 99.999% of the time.

Considering these organizations can do nothing to stop Torrent, old school P2P, and Latvian mafia groups you are not a target.

The biggest problem here is the beaucracy is more expensive than the actual copywrite losses.

If it were me and this was really important to me I would fake the mechanical lisence and get the school to host the file...not because I'm that dirty, but because the excessive red tape is the cause of the problem and not the solution.

The other idea is host the file elsewhere and maybe you can talk your school to linking to it. This removes all risk for them (it is WAY more likely that there will be a school shooting than any negative repurcussions from this).

I do remember reading about the possibility that you can not get a hold of the person in charge in "All You Need To Know About The Music Business" but I can't remember what it said.

Brandon

[bugbrain_04]

Having it hosted somewhere and linking to it is a great Idea. I'll see what my instructor has to say about that. Thanks, Brandon!

[brandondrury]

Damn! I was hoping to get you to make up a fake license. Oh well.

Brandon

[bugbrain_04]

Hahaha, I was considering it until I read far enough. Figured a link seemed safer.

[hamd_89]

I am very disappointed in you.... bugbrain_04

[bugbrain_04]

Originally Posted by hamd_89

I am very disappointed in you.... bugbrain_04

O_o Huh? Why? Am I missing something?

[J_Carlo]

"I have called Nintendo of America, and all they will tell me is their written policy of denying all requests to use their copyrighted material."

You got your answer , just not what you wanted.