How To Write A Terms Of Use/Readme File?

[elizaditton]

Hey guys. ^-^
So... I've been looking around for a long time and haven't found any info on this. Not even a forum post. Nothing. I have these two UTAU that I'm working on and hope to release this summer. Things are going somewhat smoothly. The only problem is... I've never written a ToU or even a real readme file before. I mean, I've written a "please give credit" readme for my own USTs and stuff, but... nothing that was ever really professional like a Terms of Use. I have literally no idea how to go about writing one... so... how should I go about doing it?

• How do I layout rules without sounding overly pushy?
• What rules should I add?
• What rules should I avoid adding?
• How do I go about writing rules for religious usage? (I'm a Christian, and one day I might decide I want to cover/compose Christian songs. If I allow religious usage, I might not be comfortable if my UTAU are used for covers/originals of songs for other religions... and that wouldn't really be fair to other religions, would it? Is there a way to make a rule for something like this or would it be better to just prohibit religious usage all together or just stick to traditional anthems/holiday songs etc?)
• Any advice on sounding professional?

Any help at all is appreciated. I literally have no idea what I'm doing. ^^;

 

[☆彡иα∂ιѕ☆彡]

Okay, so one way you can avoid being overly pushy is doing things like threatening to retire banks if the terms aren't respected and so on.

as for your other questions, i'll just give you my entire readme file as an example

[Voicebank name]
----------------------
[wiki links, vb download link]

[Basic voice bank info]


[Here are the rules I put down for my utau voicebank and character]

*Commercial use of the voice and character are forbidden without permission from nadis/-freckledjesus
*Religious and political representation is strictly forbidden
*Sexual representation/R-rated content is allowed, you do not need permission for this
*No responsibility can be claimed for damage caused by voicebank
*Unoffical costume designs are allowed (no religious representation)
*Pairing with other human UTAU (plural) is allowed
*Use of Sensoune NANA to support or condone illegal activities is strictly forbidden
*Please contact nadis/-freckledjesus before redistribution of voicbank
*Romantic pairing with FURLOIDS is strictly prohibited (this does not include covers, only art.)
--------------
Please respect these terms and enjoy working with Nana's voice!

[Here, I left all the links that can be used to contact me]

 

[elizaditton]

Okay, so one way you can avoid being overly pushy is doing things like threatening to retire banks if the terms aren't respected and so on.

as for your other questions, i'll just give you my entire readme file as an example

[Voicebank name]
----------------------
[wiki links, vb download link]

[Basic voice bank info]


[Here are the rules I put down for my utau voicebank and character]

*Commercial use of the voice and character are forbidden without permission from nadis/-freckledjesus
*Religious and political representation is strictly forbidden
*Sexual representation/R-rated content is allowed, you do not need permission for this
*No responsibility can be claimed for damage caused by voicebank
*Unoffical costume designs are allowed (no religious representation)
*Pairing with other human UTAU (plural) is allowed
*Use of Sensoune NANA to support or condone illegal activities is strictly forbidden
*Please contact nadis/-freckledjesus before redistribution of voicbank
*Romantic pairing with FURLOIDS is strictly prohibited (this does not include covers, only art.)
--------------
Please respect these terms and enjoy working with Nana's voice!

[Here, I left all the links that can be used to contact me]

This is useful, thank you. :D
I guess I should go look at some other ToU files as well to get more of an idea. (Don't know why I didn't think of that sooner... ha ha... XP)

 

[☆彡иα∂ιѕ☆彡]

it's also a good plan to have your utau in the utau wiki database for reference (Utau wiki 2.0 will NOT let you put your utau in their database if they do not have a voicebank that is available to the public tho)

 

[WendytheCreeper]

On the topic of rules, simply be direct and clear about your conditions. The best idea would be to remove any sort of emotion from that terms of use; doing that will avoid any accidental negative vibes, and will avoid any wishy-washy language that will make the user unsure of what to do.

For basic rules to consider, you'll want to define:

• Commercial Usage: basically, do you want the user to be able to make commercial or for-profit content with your UTAU? And if you do, would you like them to contact you for permission before they put it on sale?
• Derivative UTAU: will you allow users to make fan derivatives? Or do you not allow it?
• Controversial Content: are they allowed to use it to make a political support/ political campaign? Can they make or cover songs of controversial nature? Will you allow them to use your UTAU to slander or harass someone? Mature content? Religion? A lot of this is up to you, but it is important to define.
• Redistribution: are they allowed to redistribute the voicebanks and its components?

If you want to include character rules (e.g. "can i make a relationship with so and so??") that's fine, but the main meat and potatoes, in my opinion, are the basic rules I've mentioned.

In sounding professional, like I've said before: Be clear, and be direct. Do not add any fluff or filler to the terms (something I think I've screwed up on before orz), and avoid any excessive display of emotion in the text. Make sure that another person can understand your terms, and remember to check for spelling mistakes.

 

[Zoku]

I wrote my Terms of Use here. I put:

• intro to what these terms of use applies to
• the definition of words/terms not commonly used in English
• disclaimer about sites that are not my own but might hold my files
• permission and prohibition (basically, what can/can't i do?)
• commercial usage

This is really basic; I loosely based this off Internet Co.'s English character use ToS. Avoid informal language. You can use my ToS as a base, if you want. For the religious topic, it's best to have no religious promotion with your VB if you're not comfortable with another religion.

@nadis

Spoiler: @ nadis (off topic)

The reason why you can't have UTAU with no VB on UTAU wiki 2.0 is to avoid cluttering and waster space. In addition, UTAU with no VB are really just OCs. In addition, the first UTAU wikia is abandoned and should not be used anymore. A lot of info there is obsolete and is usually only used by newbies. Don't direct people to the old UTAU wikia unless there is an old voicebank that does not have a new page.

 

[Kiyoteru]

I agree with the previous points. I would also recommend possibly writing separate terms for the voice and for the character. An end user may not necessarily use them together. (You might have noticed a trend of vocaloid songs that have original characters in the PVs instead of the vocaloid character.) There may also be situations such as being okay with the voice being used for a purpose that the character is not, or vice versa.

 

[수연 <Suyeon>]

Here's a copy-paste of my ToU (please note that my bank is commercial/private, so there may be additional wording you wouldn't need):

• Edits are allowed to be made to configuration settings (oto.ini, prefix map), but may not be distributed in any form.
• Private cloud, external disk, or optical storage is permitted in cases of reinstallation of Operating Systems, Drive failure, or software failure.
• You are not to link to or give away physical/digital copies of this voicebank under any circumstance that does not include: death of voice provider, medical conditions and/or operations for the voice provider that results in the long lasting incapability to continue providing the voice for this sold entity.
• Original song composition with intent to make commercial profit or for charitable efforts is automatically permitted with purchase.
• Re-Arrangements, Remixes, and Covers of pre-existing works are permitted with no limitations, but must follow the terms of use/copyright with existing producers.
• Original visual and aural artistic expression without intent of monetary gain is encouraged and preferred, but must not be used to offend historically oppressed minorities, religious groups, or break social mores.
• Explicit gore, Pornographic material depicting shoujo-con/shonen-con (characters depicted in a pre-adolescent/underage stage of development, with intent of sexual attraction), full frontal nudity/genitalia, or Furries is highly discouraged unless given explicit permission by the project manager ( Kemonomimi - humans with animal ears/tails - is an acceptable exception) .
• You are not permitted under any circumstance to impersonate the voice provider/project manager.
• Roleplay as the avatar on social media (facebook, twitter, tumblr, youtube comments, devianart, forums), while not forbidden, must not assume association with the project manager/voice provider.
• Conversion to other synthesizers (Cadencii, NiaoNiao, etc.) is not encouraged. Any and all conversions to synthesizers other than UTAU - 歌声合成ツール will not be supported/troubleshooted for problems with usage.

Basically, you want all situational terms laid out without being oppressive

 

[elizaditton]

Okay, I finally finished writing out everything I wanted to add to the terms of use and uploaded a Google Doc for it here. If any you guys could highlight/make comments on/point out/etc etc any areas that may need adjusting I'd really appreciate it. ^^;