Could Stepmania Be Illegal

[Tps222]

I have had Stepmania for some time now, and have been wondering if stepmania is illegal, popular sites for getting songs to play include www.bemanistyle.com in which you can get a lot of different songs. When you download it not only do you get the stepfile, you get the music also, could this be considered illegal to download, as there are many popular songs out there that could be downloaded just for the music?

[Afrobean]

RE: Could Stepmania Be Illegal

Yes, but I feel this is the same thing as with p2p filesharing programs. I don't believe that the programs, or websites in this case, are responsible for the illegal activity. I believe it's the users committing the crimes by submitting songs that they don't have the rights for.

[Brainmaster07]

I think there's much bigger P2P programs the RIAA should be worried about. I'd be suprised if this is ever even mentioned .

But although the intent of bemanistyle isn't P2P music sharing, it could be exploited as such, so you could call it illegal /shrug.


Posting ingame movies (like a PvP battle in WoW or something) with music you don't have the rights to the background could also be considered the same thing if you just record the music (assuming there's no sound affects). There's even official ingame movies which could be exploited to get copy-righted songs. I don't think it's that big of a deal.

[imockthepea]

It's never illegal to download. It's all the people who upload...but then it's still not illgal.

[emccky]

Stepmania is illegal.

[hydrojakep]

Hell, the theme may even be illegal.

[deposition]

But the cops are not going to care as long as no one is making any money off of it.

[hEaLiNgViSiOnAnGeLicMiX]

Hell, the theme may even be illegal.

Maybe not. It IS called a DDR SIMULATOR. As a DDR simulator, it obviously tries to immitate DDr in every aspect possible. And with this name it also gives DDR (which goes back to Konami) credit for well basically...everything except the songs that people or making.

Or... I'm just an idiot on crack who doesn't know what she is talkinga bout.

[Tsuteto]

Or... I'm just an idiot on crack who doesn't know what she is talkinga bout.

Can I run with that? I think it's just fun to say that as the answer.

[Justin-Turner]

who cares if it is illegal, dont try to ruin a good thing by chatting about anything that discredits the game. when u say it is illegal u run the possibility of it being removed, and thats never good.

[Tsuteto]

Let's put it this way people (after 16 days of this topic not being posted in)

Stepmania, the program itself, is NOT illegal. However, lest the author of the song gave permission to the author of the steps, a full song would be illegal. If the song is cut to fit like 1:30 though, the song technically isn't illegal... I think.

[Squeek]

30 seconds Tsuteto.

30 seconds is the limit on using an author's music in this manner without permission.

Which is why I ruled when I made an AMV in school LEGALLY by using 30-second sound bytes of a whole slew of songs.

~Squeek

[Baker-APS]

Downloading music does not automatically = illegal

Downloading copyrighted works without permission = illegal

If the copyright owner of the music doesn't want you to download the music, it's illlegal.

If the copyright owner says it's okay to download it, it's legal.

If the copyright owner doesn't care, it doesn't matter until he changes his mind.

If the music isn't copyrighted or the copyright expired or it has been released to the public domain, it's legal.

Also, if the steps themselves are copyrighted, you technically need permission from the owner to download those.

Up to thirty seconds or ten percent of music (whichever is less) is legal to use in a multimedia project, btw. (http://www.paducah.k12.ky.us/curricu...ight%20Law.htm)

All in all, it's hard to say if any particular song is one you "shouldn't" download. Many of the songs you can find on bemanistyle aren't making money for the authors, and if it's not making money anyway, no one will likely care if it's on that website. It's up to the copyright owner to sue whoever is infringing on his copyright, and before that will happen, he will tell the owner of the website hosting his songs to cease and desist (probably).

As long as the song isn't from some popular artist making bajillions off of their music, the most that will happen is that it will be removed from the website.

[KwithH]

After all I've seen involving stepmania, my answer to your question is this....



........maybe.

[deposition]

They have been arresting/fining people who have been downloading music from places like Kazaa.. but I don't think it will be a big deal for Stepmania, at least any time soon.