35mm
They protect Bandlab's software and IP and prevent you from getting it for free and selling it on or something stupid. Or downloading the free loops and selling those. How can you possibly think that you are signing away your rights to your own music (without actually signing anything) by using a DAW?

Anderton
You get to use the stuff, but you can't sell it. Selling a song that includes particular sounds is not the same as selling the sounds.

 
Extreme case just to illustrate :  Say you create a song with a single free loop and sell it on itunes.
Original song or the resale of a licenced sample ?
 
 

Like the old days when a session musician would come in to the studio, play his part, get paid for that part, and leave. He gets nothing more. He's been paid as per agreement. Same with samples and programs. The vendor was paid for his "part" when you paid for the use of his software. Unless you're using a "student" or "noncommercial" version, they can't hold you to any financial obligation beyond that.
 
EULAs are design to protect the vendors ownership of the intellectual property from being bootlegged.
 
Still, some vendors will try to prevent you from selling any work made with their software.

zzzz (sorry)

Well, I'm glad this legal jargon got cleared up somewhat -- hopefully.

Seriously though, you can never be too sure these days, especially with digital "free lunches".
 
And, often EULA's can contain certain legal loopholes in one direction or another, just like was pointed out by user Paul P.
 

That's like Sony saying that they own the rights to all the music you recorded on your tape deck back in the 80's on the bases that the tape deck had their name written on the front of it and not yours. Relax! :)

 
Oh man, don't get the old geezer ( = me) started on THAT issue, because Sony was one of the strictest copy control enforcers, especially when it came to digital media, i.e. since the dawn of DAT tapes.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Copy_Management_System
 
Those who don't know history are doomed to -- wait ... what was it again? ..... Hmm, what's this button for?
 
Alright, have a nice summertime y'all. Cheers!
 
 
 

What you should do is familiarize yourself with copyright law so that you are certain of what your rights are.

Not commenting on any specifics, but a company can put whatever they want in their EULA but that doesn't necessarily make it enforceable. Thus the "unenforceable terms" clause.

Paul P

35mm
They protect Bandlab's software and IP and prevent you from getting it for free and selling it on or something stupid. Or downloading the free loops and selling those. How can you possibly think that you are signing away your rights to your own music (without actually signing anything) by using a DAW?

Anderton
You get to use the stuff, but you can't sell it. Selling a song that includes particular sounds is not the same as selling the sounds.

 
Extreme case just to illustrate :  Say you create a song with a single free loop and sell it on itunes.
Original song or the resale of a licenced sample ?

 
Depends on the EULA. In the example I gave, the company could claim it was a resale of a licensed sample. But I don't think they'd care, and if their legal department pursued it, the CEO would probably fire them for having too much time on their hands.
 
Michael Jackson never pursued people who sampled him because he said they could never sample his soul.

Anderton
Depends on the EULA. In the example I gave, the company could claim it was a resale of a licensed sample. But I don't think they'd care, and if their legal department pursued it, the CEO would probably fire them for having too much time on their hands.

A court case deciding just how few different samples had to be used in a production before it counted as a resale of the samples outside the user license could run for ever. One sample loop? Two? Three?

And the case would probably cost the company far more than they could gain, especially if they won it. Who’s going to buy samples from a company that says you can use them free of royalties then sues someone for doing exactly that?

There is a very easy way around this whole thing. Don't use samples that are shipped with software
I have played around with them in the past just for fun but any serious work I have done I have created using my own samples or used VST instruments to create the sounds I want.
 
With that said, I don't know of any developer who has legally gone after its customers for using VST-Instrument samples that have been manipulated by the writer. Loop samples are a different story and I do not know enough about that to give a fair assessment. Thus the reason I never took them serious enough to use in any of my work.

chuckebaby
There is a very easy way around this whole thing. Don't use samples that are shipped with software

While I don't use a lot of loops, I know that a lot of people do, and it seems to me it would be suicide for any company to sue their own customer who is using a loop they provided ostensibly as "royalty-free".
 
Of course, if instead it's discovered that the royalty free loop actually wasn't theirs to give away - that it belonged to someone else - well then you have a legal mess on your hands.

As stated earlier, if you go over the licenses for other software you use in your studio, you'll find similar language.
 
Really, there is no need to dig for hidden motives on the part of BandLab. They're plain as day. They already have a business model that includes letting people use their tools for free and they just acquired another one that they are letting people use for free.
 
In my guitar amp repair business, I have been using Google Voice for 5 years now as my business phone line. I was able to get 510-747-TUBE, which may be the coolest phone number for a guitar amp repair business ever, if I may humbly say so. It has not cost me a cent. I can text with it, voice mail with (often amusing) voice-to-text translations, all kinds of features.
 
I've written lyrics using Google Docs. Shared rough mixes and stems via Google Drive. GMail. All free. Never paid them a cent. These are all services that offer upsells if I decide that I need greater capacity from them, and many do. So they can easily afford to give me what I get for free while they make a fortune selling other companies the greater capacity.
 
Sometimes people bring me amps that have nothing more wrong with them than dirty input jacks, and I'll shoot a bit of DeOxit in the jack, wiggle the plug around, then shoot the 5hit with them about their band, and send them on their way no charge and very happy that they came to Euthymia Electronics and not some other place. No motive other than creating good will and knowing that it will spread the word that Erik is offering a good product.
 
Just because BandLab are licensing a product without charging for it that other companies used to charge money for doesn't mean they are not already making money from it. Just learning about the existence of BandLab has caused me to talk it up to several people. Multiply that by however many people have downloaded and started using the program and it adds up to some good advertising.
 
In our studios, people who don't understand how we do what we are do trust us that we know what we're doing. Can't we give BandLab the same benefit of the doubt?
 
I'm salivating waiting for them to put out the plug-ins that Cakewalk used to bundle with Platinum and sell separately, and still tantalizingly advertise on the website. The Channel Tools, that fancy L-Phase EQ and Multiband Compressor, some more ProChannel modules, they could make some coin from me in the future with "in-app purchases."
 
I'd love to have a BandLab-developed Dynamic EQ with corresponding ProChannel module, for instance.