Hi, this doesn't have much to do with web design, but I'll try to relate it somehow. I'm writing a game that will be free for download (because it is my hobby ^_^) but it uses sound Effects form another game. I will not be asking for permission to use it because:

A) I dont have $10 000
B) They would say no anyways

So what I was thinking of doing was adding a 'Terms Of Agreement' page that would tell people what the situation is and that by downloading they are taking the responsibility that the content is form somewhere else. Then at the bottom it will be something like:

I _______NAME INPUT HERE________ Agree To the Terms Above
My Email Address:___________EMAIL_________________

SUBMIT

The name and email would be saved in the MYsql database for 'just in case' purposes (no names would be handed out, but jsut used as proof that the users agreed) and the email they provided will be sent an email with a random Activation Code asked for in the Installer in oreder to play the game.



Please help me out with this whether or not this is a good idea or how to improve anything.


Thanks


EDIT TO MODS:
I couldnt really find a place to post this in, but if you know where it should be can you please move the topic? Thank you and sorry for any inconvennience

Asking them to "sign" something doesn't make it legal for you to provide it. What you're doing is copyright infringement (which you've openly admitted to on a public forum, by the way), and as such you're opening yourself to legal action. Your users, on the other hand will probably be unaffected.

How to improve on it? Don't steal the sound effects.

There's a yiddish word that perfectly describes the personality characteristic someone must have to ask other people to take responsibility in writing for his or her own law-breaking. The word is "chutzpah." ;)

You are trying to solve your initial problem (which is the lack of sound effects for your game) by getting into an even bigger problem (which is © infringement), and finally you try to solve this 2nd problem by getting into a 3rd one! My advice would be to try and focus on your real problem again. A couple of answers come to my mind: 1) Get someone else to do the sound fx for free: you'll find lots of willing people out there; 2) Do the sound fx yourself.
If you do the sound fx yourself remember this: you can pick some copyrighted material and edit/add to it enough to turn it into an original work which will be owned by you yourself. Advertising agencies do that a lot in comercials' soundtracks in order to avoid paying royalties.
This is perfectly legal. However, the resulting work must be different: if there's a piece of recognisable copyrighted material inside it, then you have created a derived work, which will get you in as much trouble.

Cheers,

There's a yiddish word that perfectly describes the personality characteristic someone must have to ask other people to take responsibility in writing for his or her own law-breaking. The word is "chutzpah." ;)

chutz·pah also hutz·pah Audio pronunciation of "chutzpah" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (tsp, ht-)
n.

Utter nerve; effrontery: “has the chutzpah to claim a lock on God and morality”

:rofl:

Thank you everybody, and no, I didnt steal the sound effects yet (and I probably won't now), but does anybody know any good ways of recording voices? Do I need some kind of a really good microphone and an empty room to do that?

I think I am asking too many questions but I'd just like to know.
Also, I found a site: www.soundrangers.com
Do you guys think it's a good site to buy off of?

Have you tried looking for free sound effects? www.flashkit.com has some good ones. Heck, years ago I bought a bunch of sound effect CDs for like $2 each, containing thousands of effects. I'm sure a local store will have something like that today.

Try searching Google for public domain sound effects or public domain audio etc. There is a lot of public domain material out there, just a matter of researching and finding it.

Public domain means no copyright laws apply and could be the answer to your problem.

If you do use copyright protected sound effects you run the risk of clients reporting you to the company or the company finding out through other means if your game becomes really popular.

You really don't want to be looking over your shoulder 24/7 for copyright infringement.

If you want to do your own sound fx, you could very well buy a cheap mixer and a uni-direction microphone. You can probably get a good set up for less around $200. Alas, I have not been able to play around with anything because of lack of cash myself, so I cannot tell you what are good brands for the buck. There are some mic's out there which will filter out almost all ambient noise. I have one friend who claims they have a $100 microphone that does an excellent job at this - I am going to have to find out the brand name...

Thanks all, the commencts helped me out. I'm already looking on the internet for some good microphones and I think I will buy "SFXEngine" as my sound effects program.

Thanks
Animecivil

You've made a good choice here to go the legal route, and I wish you all the best with the site/project.