Legal question seeks official response from Cakewalk...

Dear Cakewalk,

I have a question for the legal department at Sonar (so for all you steetcorner lawyers out there, thanks in advance for your carefully considered yet legally null and void personal opinions, but I'm really looking for an authoritative response from Cakewalk here). (Not that a comment in a public forum woud necessarily be legally binding, but it could serve us P5v2 users at least as a guide to the prevailing Cakewalk official views on the subject.) Apologies in advance if I have touched any nerves. Thanks in advance for any truly useful responses.

In the license agreement there is a caveat that the 'content' may not be used for commercial purposes.

What, exactly, is meant by the word 'content'?
What, exactly, is excluded from the legal definition of this word?

These may seem like dumb questions, but I recall the advice I once got from a copyright lawyer who told me that the word "royalty" in a certain software royalty agreement that I had made with a publisher wasn't worth the paper it was printed on since the word wasn't precisely defined (nevermind that the percentage specified for this mythical entity was an integer).

I know, the license agreement goes on at length describing 'content,' but in my (legally useless) opinion, the definition is so broadly worded that it could apply to just about everything on the CD however much we tweaked, edited, and modified it into something completely unrecognizable as originating from the CD.

A very broad interpretation would include everything that shipped on the CD, including all the samples.

A very narrow interpretation would refer only to those complete projects that were included as demos.

When I create a P5v2 project from the samples, drum loops, patterns, etc. that shipped with P5v2, am I potentially creating a saleable commercial product, or am I simply having fun with some kind of personal entertainment?

If I put together a stock "song" made exclusively from canned patterns and samples, can I license or sell the resulting wave file?

Where, exactly, do Cakewalk and its suppliers intend to draw the line here?

--thndrsn

while we wait for an official response may I just ....ummm..... laugh a bit?

a glimpse of the future: all software will be free (it basically already is for most people) BUT music (or art or designs) that you make using it that gets published, signed etc will be subject to a "royalty clause" the you electronically sign when you install the software. All audio files exported from the application will be digitally watermarked and the moment they are broadcast on the radio, tv, the internet or any other medium are digital logged and electronically sent to all parties involved.

I'll be right back, Im gonna go make a movie about this

of course they will...just havin a laugh

As memory serves me I recall this exact question being asked about P5 V1 content last year. I think Nick Haddad answered it really well to clear it up for us.

Look through this thread, especially at Nick's response:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/m.asp?m=76299&mpage=1&key=license

techhead,

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. That's helpful.

subgeek,

Yes, that would be my take on it, too, but worded as it is, that @#$% EULA is so all-inclusive that it lists the vendors that supplied the SAMPLES and prohibits 'editing' in a way that could be construed on a particularly bad day to mean nothing originating from the supplied libraries can ever be used however unlike the original it became. The flip side is that any reasonable person would have to admit that the product is marketed as a pro-audio tool and would be considerably impaired if the supplied libraries were for nothing more than demo and inspiration and every user had to start every project from scratch. My guess is that the legalese is designed to cover Cakewalk in any and every case should their management feel cornered and need to quote the document, but it kind of leaves all of their customers out on a limb and at the mercy of someone else's largesse.

everyone,

I'm still seeking a definitive answer to this question: "If I use the canned MIDI patterns and samples in the supplied libraries in my own arrangement (as a canned bass line, for example, with canned drum loops, for example, and canned pads, for example, with a noodly lead thrown in to make it unique), am I free to license or sell the resulting wav file?" (NOTE: I'm not asking if anyone thinks someone would likely BUY such a product, so quit yer laughing. Besides, I'm sure that someone WOULD. I didn't fall off the peanut wagon yesterday. But I'm mainly just trying to bracket the possibilities here with a possibly hypothetical case.)

Guess I'll have to call that toll free number and ask.

I suppose, too, as in the case I cited in my first post, that the agreement could be so ambiguously worded that it isn't enforcable in any way whatsoever.

With favorable winds, we'll all never know.

I'm not a lawyer and I don't speak for Cakewalk. That's just my 2 cents.

--thndrsn