How Does Commercial Video Game Sheet Music Affect Our Transcriptions?

[mikey]

I like hamburgers
And perhaps you (dekka) could actively make arrangements for sheets that are on other sites.  We want a monopoly

[WaluigiTime64]

We want a monopoly

Yes.

[MaestroUGC]

By making referential arrangements that allow random pianists to pursue their interests in VGM, we don't just allow the spread of creative information - we redirect interest, and therefore traffic, to the originals. This is done with good purpose, and it's very hard to argue that non-commercial, free-for-all arrangements will take away any glory from the original tracks, no matter how brilliant these arrangements are. There's a mutual, win-win sort of relationship - I pursue my interests and love you more, you get more attention and cash. ^^

Not to take away from the bigger discussion, but you nor the site proper has any method to measure whether the arrangements on site increase or decrease interest in officially released sources. Assuming one way or the other is disingenuous and such a point obfuscates the original argument.

[daj]

Not to take away from the bigger discussion, but you nor the site proper has any method to measure whether the arrangements on site increase or decrease interest in officially released sources. Assuming one way or the other is disingenuous and such a point obfuscates the original argument.

Mmhmm, that's right and that's where my argument's weakness lies. ^^

That being said, this is when we talk about "goodwill" - doing something in goodwill means there's no harm intended for the other party, and I'd really like to assume that we're all arranging out of goodwill, and no one has the intention of stealing Nintendo's market shares through making piano arrangements. This argument could be shut down in the same way - that there's no grounds for assumption that all of us write out of goodwill - but hey, I believe in our community. And let's ignore the reason for a while just for this part

Besides, I'm quite sure that outdoing Nintendo's collections of VGM using piano arrangements (which by definition are derivative works of the originals) is an impossible ambition. So let's look past that.

I just realised I haven't brought up my point yet haha, sorry for the long defense. But here it is - when we credit the composer and even acknowledge the original copyright source in the sheet requirements, we're doing so out of goodwill. Fair use makes it such that we could get away with claiming all credit for the original, but that's just...wrong. It's not a violation of creative rights in that sense, but it's just something that we know, by some code of ethics, is wrong.

I'd like to think that with all these tiny measures put in place, the NSM standard is all about goodwill. We have no intention to steal recognition from the original composer, therefore we acknowledge his rights and publicise his identity.

To summarise this, once again:
- arranging any creative work is legally permitted under certain circumstances
- the acknowledging of copyright and composer identity by the NSM guidelines is done in the name of goodwill, even though it's not a stated rule
- therefore, cut some corners and use some human emotion, and we realise that we're not here to steal market shares off nintendo

Hope this makes sense

[BlueStone]

Fair use makes it such that we could get away with claiming all credit for the original, but that's just...wrong.

Unless I'm mistaking your meaning on "claiming all credit for the original", fair use does not mean you can claim to have made the original but rather that you can use the original for specific purposes and in specific ways without infringement of copyright. Aside from that, fair use is quite a grey area most of the time because it's under loose criteria so claiming something is okay because it's "fair use" doesn't necessarily mean it's fair use under a judge's eye.

Anyways, since you brought up acknowledging the original copyright source in the sheets, isn't this a bit awkward? It's kind of like claiming that the copyright owner made the sheets, which they obviously didn't, and the date is when the original work was made rather than the transcription. Wouldn't it be better for the disclaimer to say something like "Original music © name year"?

[Latios212]

I gotta ask... what are you trying to do here? You just come in here, accuse us of copyright infringement and plagiarism, disregard the points we're trying to explain to you... to what end?

[BlueStone]

Whoa, hang on, I'm not accusing anyone of plagiarism, and I thought we clarified that the sheets do infringe on copyrights at least to some extent since it's unclear what free licenses Nintendo is giving. I'm not disregarding any points either. I'm just interested in the subject and thought I could contribute to the conversation. No need to take offense.

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

My input: BlueStone crossed some lines, but has good points. Latios is being a bit too defensive, but also has good points.

And if you don't like my input, then meh.

[Dudeman]

I kind of have to agree with Lat, BlueStone. You just seemed...really into the topic, trying to clarify every single angle, almost like you were trying to find something we were doing wrong. Forgive us for being defensive, but it did come across as aggressive.

[BlueStone]

No problem. My apologies as well. I do sometimes come across as being aggressive through text.

[Latios212]

Thanks.

[daj]

No problem. My apologies as well. I do sometimes come across as being aggressive through text.

eh, if you wanted to play the nitty-gritty game i would have obliged. ah well this works too~

I guess this solves most things then ^^