it’s pretty unclear (…)
Let’s be absolutely clear on this: We at Renoise have no interest whatsoever in trying to restrict your creativity or have any kind of legal hold over your creations. We’re musicians ourselves, and we would never agree to our own rights being restricted in such a way. Your music is your music.
Any original music/composition that you create with Renoise using your own samples is of course 100% yours to do whatever the heck you want with!
The same general rule also applies to any original creations that are partially (or wholly) based on Renoise’s factory sounds. We sourced (and licensed/paid for) those samples, so that you would have something basic to get started with, and you’d actually be able to use those sounds in your own creations. It would be rather stupid if you spent hours/days/weeks working on some amazing music, and then you couldn’t release it anywhere because we suddenly said “not so fast, buddy, you can’t use our samples in your music!”
So please don’t abandon Renoise over this particular issue. Make your music, and have fun!
there’s even a futher point 6 “e” that does not makes this even better but worse because it’s written pretty vague. “musical content” could mean pretty much everything.
Legal documents definitely suck ass. You know this, we know this, everybody knows this, but it’s an unfortunate and necessary aspect of doing business.
The clause in the EULA looks scarier than it really is, as is usually the case with this ugly legalese crap. Let’s take a look…
§ 6 Express Forbidden Uses
- The licensee is expressly forbidden to:
(…)
e. reformat, mix, filter, re-synthesize, edit or alter the sound samples and other musical content connected to the software for use in any kind of commercial sampling product/package or software, without the express written consent of the licensor.
Now, I’m certainly no lawyer, but as far as I’m concerned it does not say that we want to control or restrict the music that you make with Renoise.
It’s basically saying that you cannot take any of our factory content — samples, demo songs, etc. — and then repackage them in their basic form as part of another product. Nor can you take them, modify them a little bit, and then repackage them that way. That’s simply not in good faith, nor is it a fair use of our factory content.
For example, you cannot take our breakbeat samples, chop them up a bit (or filter/distort them a bit), and then sell them as your own breakbeat sample pack. You cannot take our demo songs, render out some of their patterns as loops, and then sell that as your own sample loops pack. Once again, that’s simply not fair use.
On the other hand, if you produce your own original musical composition that is partially (or even entirely) based on Renoise factory sounds, that’s totally fine. As long as it’s obviously an original creation by you, and not simply “hey, let’s play all of Renoise’s breakbeat samples unedited, back to back, for 5 minutes”, then it’s fine.
Likewise, if you want to remix one of the included demo songs and release it on SoundCloud (or wherever), provided that you get permission from the original song creator, that’s also totally fine.
In general, we really don’t care what you do with your own original compositions, even if they do happen to be based on some of our factory sounds. Just apply a bit of common sense and be fair when using the included content, and nobody will have any problems with it.
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