Copyright Infringement.

[MrMusicalLion]

Hi.

I recently discovered that a song of mine on Newgrounds has been used in a Flash game both here, and on Kongregate, without my permission.

I'm asking for advice on what I can do or how I should proceed from here. I've sent emails to the people involved but I also wondered if anyone here might have any experience with these matters, and if there is anything that I should know, that I don't alread.

The game itself has been sponsored on Kongregate. I'm pretty sure that means that they received some sort of payment for such, which immediately violates the CC license that I selected. Furthermore there are adverts on the game. Does that quality as commercial use? Since they would surely get ad-revenue from it.

I will not post the items in question just yet as I don't want to start a witch hunt. There is every chance that this might be a mistake or someone may have underhandedly duped the game developer (the musician assigned to the may have stolen my music, and presented it as his own)

However, I will mention that the game has had ~20,000 views here and close to 800,000 views on Kongregate. That's quite a lot. And I'm slightly pissed, to say the least. As the music is used throughout the intro and during the following level select menu.

Any thoughts?
Thanks.

[MrMusicalLion]

ED: that I don't know already*

[MrMusicalLion]

Ugh. I am semi-retarded tonight. I forgot to mention that no credit has been given to me either. Which would have made this acceptable as long as no money was earnt from it.

Furthermore the game music has been accredited to another musician entirely, and there is no mention of my name in either case.

[midimachine]

At 5/6/13 05:52 PM, MrMusicalLion wrote: Furthermore the game music has been accredited to another musician entirely, and there is no mention of my name in either case.

looks like someone else might have pulled a fast one on the devs. or the devs are willfully ignorant of cc stuff. probably both.

[alternativesolution]

At 5/6/13 05:52 PM, MrMusicalLion wrote: Ugh. I am semi-retarded tonight. I forgot to mention that no credit has been given to me either. Which would have made this acceptable as long as no money was earnt from it.

Furthermore the game music has been accredited to another musician entirely, and there is no mention of my name in either case.

The whole thing is downright unacceptable...even if they are not profiting from it, you still should have been duly credited... that is part of the license. Yeah obviously there must have been some mix up with crediting an entirely different musician... either that or the musician is a willing participant in claiming something that is not his or hers. I think you did the right thing with the sending of emails ... has it been long since they've been sent out ? If everything was in fact a complete (and stupid) mistake, then they should be getting back to you promptly on the matter..

[MrMusicalLion]

At 5/6/13 06:49 PM, alternativesolution wrote: The whole thing is downright unacceptable...even if they are not profiting from it, you still should have been duly credited... that is part of the license. Yeah obviously there must have been some mix up with crediting an entirely different musician... either that or the musician is a willing participant in claiming something that is not his or hers. I think you did the right thing with the sending of emails ... has it been long since they've been sent out ? If everything was in fact a complete (and stupid) mistake, then they should be getting back to you promptly on the matter..

Thanks for the reply. I only discovered this today; the emails were sent a few hours ago.
The game itself was posted in September 2011. It was posted a month later to here.
Messages have been sent to Kongregate and the Game Creator so far.

I might as well go ahead and name it now since it seems to me that I have good enough case here to be furious.
Judge for yourself whether it is intentional deceit or not. To me it looks like either someone lied or someone was lied to.

GAME: http://www.kongregate.com/games/nerdook/legends-of-kong

Newgrounds Version: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/581009

My Music: APOCALYPSE

• 

  Apocalypse [Suspense] RD2

  by MrMusicalLion

  Music for Film: Suspense/Drama/SciFi

  Song

  Miscellaneous

  16,010 Views

  PLAY

The music comes in after the 'Start Game' button is pressed. The music loops through the intro and into the following menus.

Haven't sent C&D's yet but will if my initial efforts are ignored. Quite surprised really.

[Rampant]

At 5/6/13 07:04 PM, MrMusicalLion wrote: Haven't sent C&D's yet but will if my initial efforts are ignored. Quite surprised really.

Pro-tip: if they don't respond to your e-mails, they're probably not going to respond to a C&D either, unless you get it sent by a practicing attorney. (Another pro-tip: an attorney may charge $200-$350 per letter.)

If the creators don't respond within a reasonable time, or they don't offer to make reasonable amends, you'd probably be better off filing a copyright infringement with the sites themselves - they're usually much more compliant with takedown requests than individual users.

That's more free advice than you'd get from an attorney.

[Troisnyx]

At 5/6/13 08:29 PM, RampantMusik wrote: If the creators don't respond within a reasonable time, or they don't offer to make reasonable amends, you'd probably be better off filing a copyright infringement with the sites themselves - they're usually much more compliant with takedown requests than individual users.

Question though: since the game is also on NG does that mean flagging the game?

[Rampant]

At 5/6/13 08:49 PM, TroisNyxEtienne wrote:

At 5/6/13 08:29 PM, RampantMusik wrote: If the creators don't respond within a reasonable time, or they don't offer to make reasonable amends, you'd probably be better off filing a copyright infringement with the sites themselves - they're usually much more compliant with takedown requests than individual users.

Question though: since the game is also on NG does that mean flagging the game?

Flagging it would work, but it seems that the quickest way to get it handled would be e-mailing Tom.

From the Newgrounds' Help/FAQs page:

[MrMusicalLion]

At 5/6/13 08:53 PM, RampantMusik wrote:

At 5/6/13 08:49 PM, TroisNyxEtienne wrote:

At 5/6/13 08:29 PM, RampantMusik wrote: If the creators don't respond within a reasonable time, or they don't offer to make reasonable amends, you'd probably be better off filing a copyright infringement with the sites themselves - they're usually much more compliant with takedown requests than individual users.

Question though: since the game is also on NG does that mean flagging the game?

Flagging it would work, but it seems that the quickest way to get it handled would be e-mailing Tom.

From the Newgrounds' Help/FAQs page:

Thanks. I'll play nice at first, I'm still inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. But regardless I will take all advice into consideration, which I am thankful for. If nothing is noticed soon [a week or so] I'll pull the trigger so-to-speak. Thanks everyone.