Whew I am back at full capacity everyone! Time to get organized here. Hope everyone's holidays were excellent! I have updated the main list of participants on the first post, let me know if you spot anything out of the ordinary! Big thanks to Mustika for stepping in, wish I had seen his post before making my own so I could have saved some time but oh well lol

This week I will get an update on the status of prizes from the last competition. Also expect a new montage and release schedule coming up soon! It's taking a bit longer due to some copyright issues we're sorting through, but it will be done. :stickpage:

Gonna answer some questions for everyone:

Quote from guramecon

Question :

If I make a parody animation and use a copyrighted content that related to the parody, is that classified as Fair Use for this competition?

Can you go in to more detail in a PM maybe? Fair Use is sometimes difficult to argue depending on how the original material is used. Many times people believe they are in the clear under Fair Use when they are not, so I just want to be certain before giving the go-ahead.

Quote from MethodAnims1

Yo Jeff, what if i signed up for the beginners competition, can i also join this one?

Yes absolutely

Quote from Irian

How do you use audio from Newgrounds? Do we have to message the creator and ask them if we can use their music?

Yeah, the majority of the time the author will be fine with it but if it doesn't have a public license you do need to get permission. You can see the license for each track on the left side of it's view page. If it's not a public track, you can send them a message and get permission directly which clears you for use.

Quote from HyMaster

Are anime and game music considered as copyrighted music?

Yes. If you're taking songs from an album, movie, show, or game it's more than likely copyrighted.

Quote from Kursura

Hey Jeff, is there any repercussions for not finishing? I'd like to try entering but I'm more inter than pro and want to try something more experimental to make up for that. But it could prove hard to complete.

Also, can you update the thread with current participant please?

There are no repercussions for not finishing lol just do your best and make good use of your time and if you can't finish then it's no big deal. You can always try again next round!

Also the thread is updated :P

Quote from Mustika

Just wanna help Jeff while I can. It's time to update. xcuse me gon' need to rest after all the table codings x_x

lmao welcome to my paaiinn

thank you for doing that, rest now my child

Got a thread up.

http://forums.stickpage.com/showthread.php?101874-SPAC-Log-52&p=1473532#post1473532

And checked some of the other threads and I am really looking forward to those entries. Good luck to everyone.

I feel the urge to make an entry D: Gonna make an entry!
ooqeaaM

Jeff, are nightcores and dubsteps free of copyright?
You know, when you speed up the music and add some extra beats to it?
There are a lot in YouTube so just asking.

Also, to what extent are we not allowed to use copyrighted music?
Can we cut clips of it for certain sections of the animation?
Also, how about song covers, music sung by another, they are not copyrighted anymore right?

Quote from Fordz

Jeff, are nightcores and dubsteps free of copyright?
You know, when you speed up the music and add some extra beats to it?
There are a lot in YouTube so just asking.

Also, how about song covers, music sung by another, they are not copyrighted anymore right?

This is kind of a grey area. In the music industry it seems that there's disagreement over when exactly a song becomes transformed enough to be considered a completely different song. Many Nightcore songs are transformed so much that they are considered original work, in which case you still need to get permission from the author because they own the copyright for it now.

However a great number are actually infringing copyright because they just aren't transformed enough. These are actually considered covers. Covers are kind of strange. They are not inherently copyright-free, and if you want to legally cover a song you need to own the mechanical license for it. Despite this most people who cover songs never bother to get a license and exist in a grey area, but these covers are still technically copyright infringement and we can't accept the use of them either.

Think of it like this: Would you feel your rights have been violated if someone traced your animation frame for frame and published it on YouTube, then a company came along and used it in a commercial without asking which made them thousands of dollars?

Quote from Fordz

Also, to what extent are we not allowed to use copyrighted music?
Can we cut clips of it for certain sections of the animation?

Unfortunately no, we cannot accept it at all if it has any length of copyright music in it. Some people believe it's not copyright infringement if you only use a couple of seconds of the song but it still is.

To be clear though that depending on the subject matter you might still be able to use copyright music and be protected under Fair Use. If you are going to use copyright music under Fair Use I would advise you send me a message first because I find a lot of people don't clearly understand Fair Use and I don't want anyone to do a lot of work and have their entry rejected because it's not actually Fair Use.

Also, if you own the license to use a copyright track then you are free to include that song. Some people here actually have purchased licenses to songs for use in their work which allows us both to be in the clear legally.

*looks at main thread post*

Oh sorry jeff, here's my thread link: http://forums.stickpage.com/showthread.php?101676-SPAC-ACXpedition

hey jeff idk if you mentioned it before, but i want to double check to make sure.... if we ask the artist for permission to use the song, would we be able to use it? i know it seems like a silly question but i want to get through this competition with as little problems as possible

The thread is up! http://forums.stickpage.com/showthread.php?101896-SPAC-ooqeaaM
Good luck all :D

Quote from jaguilar

hey jeff idk if you mentioned it before, but i want to double check to make sure.... if we ask the artist for permission to use the song, would we be able to use it? i know it seems like a silly question but i want to get through this competition with as little problems as possible

Probably, yeah. I think it's also a matter of YouTube's automatic copyright system though, so I'll wait for jeff to answer that question for ya

Joining, working title: Trip;
wip thread http://forums.stickpage.com/showthread.php?101905-SPAC-Trip-(working-title)&p=1473914#post1473914

Good luck to everyone. =]

How about if I sing a cover? Is that fine?
It's my voice anyway, how's that?

Also, if I use another person's "original music" with lyrics and all that, all I need is to ask permission from the owner right?
I mean, their music is not licensed so YouTube won't mind, so I need is permission from the owner.

Anyway, it's really hard finding "completely" copyright-free sounds since almost every music has an owner.
I think the main goal here is to find music that won't trigger YouTube's copyright alarm system.

Anime "ambient" music is good too right? The orchestral/intrumental music they use when they fight or something.
This is kinda frustating. To make things easier, can we PM you Jeff some music we'd like you to confirm if it's okay for use?
Since now, the music can be a factor whether we are disqualified or not, it's really... hard...
Because I don't see a clear line between okay to use and not okay to use as of now.

Oh yeah, another thing.
My ideas involve blood, lots of it. Can you give us some kind of guide on how much blood is allowed or how detailed? (A picture would be preferable)
Otherwise, I'd be doing some children's fairy tale or something, but most fairy tales have happy endings so it's not gonna be in line with the theme.
Demn.

EDIT:
You know what, I think I'll just play it safe and use stuff from YouTube's Copyright-Free Sound Archive.
You can answer these just in case other people need the info and for the sake of clarification for competitions to come.

Renaming my entry to, "Love Birds".
Genre: Romance, Comedy

FFS how long it took me to find some decent non copyright music :( But I finally got 3 songs that will just about work for me. A lot of non copyright music aren't very refined, but I guess that's to expected since they're free. Ok, now I can finally start my story board, and think of creating my thread.

Quote from Drifts

FFS how long it took me to find some decent non copyright music :( But I finally got 3 songs that will just about work for me. A lot of non copyright music aren't very refined, but I guess that's to expected since they're free. Ok, now I can finally start my story board, and think of creating my thread.

Well shit, I'm in the same boat. Got approval from the content creator that I could use it today. Also, hi Drifts :D

Quote from power fuse0

Well shit, I'm in the same boat. Got approval from the content creator that I could use it today. Also, hi Drifts :D

Heeey :) good luck in the competition, excited to see what you produce.