Today's Comic - Downloadable songs

[heavybass]

I Like the comic today Greg.

However the view on whether downloading songs off the internet is a topic that some people have views on. It is illegal yes but think about it you'll get ripped off when you buy cds of your own so most of the world turn to internet downloads

Anyone got their opinions to voice?

[The YoYo Freak]

I've never played with Stepmania, but FFR is pretty fun and perfectly legal.

Jared

[Gowerlypuff]

heavybass, we're not talking about songs in general, but dwi's and songs from official konami DDR mixes. I'm not actually sure whether it's illegal or not to download them. The "originals", i.e. songs that people make themselves, are perfectly legal, so you can get Tournamixes and stuff.

Greg, you got to 9 feet already? I'm impressed. I'm at 10, maybe 11 now on the keyboard. Keep it up.

[Mescad]

The phrase that bugged me was "Human law"

Now, I can understand saying downloading music for which you don't have a licensee is against US Law, or Federal Law. "Human Law" on the other hand I would reserve for acts against humanity, like murder, assault, pollution, etc. Well, pollution I might call "Natural Law" but I digress...

YoYo Freak, I think Stepmania itself is perfectly legal, just like most emulators are, but it's the songs that are illegal to own if you don't have a license for the original machine.

Gowerlypuff, if a "Tournamix" is a remix of an original DDR or some other song it most likely qualifies as a derivative work and therefore is not legal to distribute without permission of the original song copyright holder.

[nessin]

There is no such thing (to the best of my knowledge) as "Human law" it was just expressed by Greg as law written by humans.

Most countires use Criminal Law and Civil/Common Law. Criminal law being for crimes that break the law itself (usually for jail time), Civil/Common law for crimes against something under the protection of law but not directly breaking it. Common Law (which I believe is used in the US) is typically used for breaches of contract, copyright infringment, etc... Those cases typically end in some sort of financial payoff.

[Ashley E.]

Songs: They are "legal" to download freely outside of Japan unless they have been licsenced here. Example, most of the songs have been licsenced in the console version for the USA, so most of the songs are now illegal to download here.

Step files: Not copies of the originals, but rather reproductions. Prohibited by law since whichever step files are licsenced here. Not really a big deal with the step files.

Stepmania and other DDR simulators: Completely legal, but could be sued for infringing on copyrights. (I doubt this would hold up well in court, its not really Konami's intellectual property.)

Tournamix: The songs are illegal, step files are original works of art.

[heavybass]

How is it that every time i make a topic, i always get it wrong

WHY!

WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[Gowerlypuff]

Tournamix illegal? I know most of the people that make them say that they're fine to be downloaded. They are all original songs (none of them are official Konami songs. The whole point of the tournamix is that you make songs to win something) and most people who enter usually give consent for others to play their songs.

[Mae Dean]

*chuckles* It must be an art, HB.

And what human law means, essentially, is a law made by humans. As opposed to, say, a physical law. If you break the speed of light, that's not illegal. It's damned cool. If you oppose the law of gravity, it's not illegal.

And as far as the legality of the official files goes, I'm in the school of thought that it is, in fact, illegal. I'm also in the school of thought that I don't care. I can justify it all sorts of ways, like saying that this only makes me want to go to the arcade to play more (playing at home is hardly a replacement), but it doesn't change the fact that you are in fact downloading copyrighted music and graphics. It's mostly just a matter of how much it bugs you.

Now, if an artist who has the rights to a song makes the step files for his music, that would be about the only way you could get a "Legal" DDR song. Again, I don't particularly care.

And Puff, yeah... i've been getting A's on a couple of 9-footers lately. I can't do ALL 9's, just a few, but there are a few songs that I've been proud of. On Beethoven's Virus from one of the Tournamixes, that part in the middle where it gets really fast and nonstop, I did that without missing a single one. Something like a 250 combo. Considering the difficulty of the song, that's not too bad. I wanna get really good on the keyboard and see how well that translates to actually moving my feet that quickly.

[Gowerlypuff]

It doesn't, really.
I can do 5-6 footers (generally) on the pads. I can do SOME 8-9 footers, but they're easy ones like party hard, or Max 300 standard. Spins are much easier on the keyboard (Candy*, for example) than on a pad.

[AlexanderBarca]

/me wonders if Greg has played Liberi Fatali on stepmania yet.

[billf]

[quote="Greg Dean";p="394527"] It's damned cool. If you oppose the law of gravity, it's not illegal. [/quote]

Gravity sucks!

/me floats

[hyperactiveChipmunk]

Maybe Greg should consider letting the dictionary do a little bit of thinking for him! >8)

-hC

[Sandman]

What do you mean man?
I used stepmania for a while, now it just doesn't work.

[hyperactiveChipmunk]

Look carefully...

-hC