Is listening to Sonic music online on youtube illegal/stealing?

[ShadowSJG]

I was wondering, is it? I know sega has uploaded tracks but there are others out there with extensions. In addition, people upload playthroughts with those tracks included, so I was wondering, is it illegal to listen to the tracks?

[Badnik Mechanic]

8 minutes ago, ShadowSJG said:

is it illegal to listen to the tracks?

No.

[ShadowSJG]

Is it considered stealing?

[Tara]

The rights holders would love it if you didn't, but they're not going to do anything about it.

[Indigo Rush]

SEGA seems to be alright with it. The iffy stuff happens when the uploader monetizes it or ignores a request to have it taken down. 

[ShadowSJG]

Is it stealing or not?

[Radiant Hero Ike]

Nah. I think it's only a problem if you download it for free.

[Tara]

No, it's not stealing.  You are not legally responsible for what OTHER people upload.  If you're really that hung up over it, though, buy the official OST if it's released or buy a copy of the game it's from so the composers and musicians can get their sweet, sweet royalties.

Downloading is a different debate, though.

[Harkofthewaa]

If it really bugs you that much, go listen to it on Spotify.

[Tara]

18 minutes ago, Indigo Rush said:

SEGA seems to be alright with it. The iffy stuff happens when the uploader monetizes it or ignores a request to have it taken down. 

That reminds me that I quite dislike people who do this.  Like, for how often we complain about companies that misuse YouTube's copyright takedown system, there are people that also abuse the monetization system by doing things like that, and then claiming that it's "fair use."  They're as much to blame for YouTube's copyright system being broken as the DMCA abusers are.

[ShadowSJG]

Am I complicit in stealing though by listening?

Is it legal on spotify?

[Tara]

Where, might I ask, are these questions coming from?  I don't understand your moral dilemma.

[ShadowSJG]

I was wondering if it's moral or not.

[Tara]

That's for you to decide, not us?

I don't believe you are complicit in stealing for listening to tracks.  The mixed blessing of YouTube's open nature is that if the rights holders don't want them up, they can take them down.  This is in contrast to downloading, which enables people to store copies on their devices that the rights holders have no control over, which is a bit more problematic.

There are problems with this philosophy, though, when you consider the increasingly prolific use of apps and browser extensions that allow you to freely and easily download videos from YouTube, but I think that those questions are best targeted towards people who make those things than people who listen to streams, since they tend to work against YouTube rather than with.

But anyway, we can't tell you how to feel about something morally because morality is subjective.  There are people that will tell you that copyright laws in general are immoral, which isn't something I agree with (if only because most people only hold this belief towards things that benefit them and would gladly jump on the copyright bandwagon if they ever had a chance to profit off of it), but I respect their opinion as valid.

tl;dr think for yourself.

[ShadowSJG]

Depends, am I infrining on copyright laws?

BTW, are there places to get sonic soundtracks online?

[Tara]

Copyright laws have been iffy on if users listening to streams is actually a violation or not.  Again, no clear answer here.

[Zaysho]

7 minutes ago, ShadowSJG said:

Depends, am I infrining on copyright laws?

BTW, are there places to get sonic soundtracks online?

It's surprisingly easy to legally obtain most Sonic music these days. Amazon has a huge selection of digital soundtracks, and some of the physical releases are still in print and can be imported via CDJapan or similar outlets. So if you're that worried about copyright infringement, you have options available to you as a consumer.

[Tara]

1 hour ago, ShadowSJG said:

Is it legal on spotify?

Didn't see this until now.  All music on Spotify as well as Pandora and Amazon Prime are licensed and paid for, so yes, it's legal.

[Tornado]

2 hours ago, ShadowSJG said:

I was wondering, is it? I know sega has uploaded tracks but there are others out there with extensions. In addition, people upload playthroughts with those tracks included, so I was wondering, is it illegal to listen to the tracks?

1 hour ago, ShadowSJG said:

Am I complicit in stealing though by listening?

29 minutes ago, ShadowSJG said:

Depends, am I infrining on copyright laws?

The key to copyright law is in the title. Copyright. Meaning the creator's exclusive right to copy and distribute their work on their terms. If you're suffering from a moral quandary from listening to the Sonic Chronicles main menu music on a loop, don't do it; but the person who has committed infringement on Sega's intellectual properties is the person who uploads something or streams it without permission. Not the person who viewed or listened to it.

[Badnik Mechanic]

YouTube:

Is it stealing. No.

Is it illegal. No.

Is it moral. You decide.

 

That's it. Unless you are doing the uploading, hosting or distribution, you are not breaking any law by watching or listening via streaming.

So YouTube is perfectly fine, unless you happen to view content which would break very specific laws e.g. viewing terrorist material.

If however you downloaded the music/video, or uploaded it to be hosted, then yes illegal.

 

Watching youtube vids is not illegal. The legality falls on the uploaded and the content host. Not the viewer. 

[ShadowSJG]

11 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

YouTube:

Is it stealing. No.

Is it illegal. No.

Is it moral. You decide.

 

That's it. Unless you are doing the uploading, hosting or distribution, you are not breaking any law by watching or listening via streaming.

So YouTube is perfectly fine, unless you happen to view content which would break very specific laws e.g. viewing terrorist material.

If however you downloaded the music/video, or uploaded it to be hosted, then yes illegal.

 

Watching youtube vids is not illegal. The legality falls on the uploaded and the content host. Not the viewer. 

Am I infringing on copyright laws?

Also, with some tracks, there are extensions on youtube. Is there any way to get them as a consumer?

[Indigo Rush]

I don't know how many times we need to explain to you that it isn't considered stealing or an infringement on copyright laws to listen to uploaded material. It's up to you if it's right or not.

If Sega is okay with them being online, then you should be okay to listen to it. End of story. If you have any hang-ups beyond that, then don't do it. Buy the soundtracks online. If you can't buy the soundtrack, buy the game, which contains the soundtracks, and then listen to it online since you own it by proxy. 

The End.

That's the moral of this episode of SSMB Sez! Remember, knowledge is power, and knowing is half the battle. Funding for Sonic Stadium is provided by viewers like you. Thank you.

[TailsTellsTales]

Wow. I never knew anybody to be this concerned over listening to music through youtube and feeling like they committed an act of evil. It's like they say earlier as long the uploader is not trying to make profit off the music then it's all good to go. But is it moral? I think it helps get their work out there so in that way yes but it depends on how you look at it.

[Harkofthewaa]

There's also the another angle to it, a concept known as Keep Circulating the Tapes, where sometimes there's stuff that's either too rare, too old, or both. With these things, sometimes listening to it on Youtube/Spotify/whatever is the only practical way of listening to it unless you can afford dropping a few hundred dollars on one of the few copies still foating about, now obviously most of the Sonic stuff doesn't have this problem (I say most because there are obscure things out there, like Virtual Sonic). Normally, though, I go by the rule of "If I own the game the music originates from, it's free game as I already own a legal copy of the OST (with that being said, I still try to buy OST's for the sake of support, I just don't lose any sleep from listening to the stuff on Youtube while I go about my business). That's my opinion on the matter, like everyone else is saying, it's your opinion/moral standard. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

1 hour ago, ShadowSJG said:

Am I infringing on copyright laws?

Also, with some tracks, there are extensions on youtube. Is there any way to get them as a consumer?

Listening/streaming them on youtube. No.

Downloading them. Technically yes, but there is utterly no way ANYONE can prove outright you have ripped audio/video from youtube.