I'm interested to know about what terms of use people have outlined for their own voicebanks, namely on these main points:
Attribution: Is it required to specify the name of the voicebank? Is it required to specify the name of the voicebank's author?
Usage content: What type of content is prohibited?
Commercial use: Is commercial usage permitted? If so, is it free without permission? If permission is required, how is it granted?
Editing the voicebank: Can audio samples be edited? Can other files (such as OTOs and FRQs) be edited?
Redistribution: Is redistribution permitted? How much of the voicebank files can be redistributed? Can rendered singing vocals be redistributed?
This doesn't apply to artwork or characters, just the folder of recordings itself. I'd like to see how much people agree, and how much people differ.
In general, these are the terms I have for my own voicebanks.
Attribution: Not required for the voicebank or the author. It should go without saying that you can't claim it as your own work in the absence of credit.
Usage content: Limited sexual and political content, no criminal or bigoted content
Commercial use: After directly contacting the author, commercial usage may be granted
Editing: All editing is permitted.
Redistribution: No part or whole of the voicebank can be redistributed. Rendered singing vocals may be shared.
I feel that people tend to write detailed and restrictive terms of use in order to explicitly avoid nightmare situations, such as someone pitching your voicebank up, recoloring the artwork bright green, and claiming it's their own new UTAU. And I understand that concern, because it's something that actually happens to people!
But at the same time, I think about how it could possibly inconvenience normal, reasonable users and impede on their creativity. For example, when writing a song, people generally don't make a long list of every individual instrument they used, but you wouldn't assume that they built or programmed every instrument from scratch either. I also had some reservations regarding editing, because people don't want to see their voicebanks turned into some ridiculous joke. But banning sample editing means that you wouldn't be able to do anything like noise removal or sample splicing. And it seems perfectly reasonable to allow editing of OTOs and FRQs to fix errors.
This is just my opinion though, so please share your own thoughts.
Attribution: Is it required to specify the name of the voicebank? Is it required to specify the name of the voicebank's author?
Usage content: What type of content is prohibited?
Commercial use: Is commercial usage permitted? If so, is it free without permission? If permission is required, how is it granted?
Editing the voicebank: Can audio samples be edited? Can other files (such as OTOs and FRQs) be edited?
Redistribution: Is redistribution permitted? How much of the voicebank files can be redistributed? Can rendered singing vocals be redistributed?
This doesn't apply to artwork or characters, just the folder of recordings itself. I'd like to see how much people agree, and how much people differ.
In general, these are the terms I have for my own voicebanks.
Attribution: Not required for the voicebank or the author. It should go without saying that you can't claim it as your own work in the absence of credit.
Usage content: Limited sexual and political content, no criminal or bigoted content
Commercial use: After directly contacting the author, commercial usage may be granted
Editing: All editing is permitted.
Redistribution: No part or whole of the voicebank can be redistributed. Rendered singing vocals may be shared.
I feel that people tend to write detailed and restrictive terms of use in order to explicitly avoid nightmare situations, such as someone pitching your voicebank up, recoloring the artwork bright green, and claiming it's their own new UTAU. And I understand that concern, because it's something that actually happens to people!
But at the same time, I think about how it could possibly inconvenience normal, reasonable users and impede on their creativity. For example, when writing a song, people generally don't make a long list of every individual instrument they used, but you wouldn't assume that they built or programmed every instrument from scratch either. I also had some reservations regarding editing, because people don't want to see their voicebanks turned into some ridiculous joke. But banning sample editing means that you wouldn't be able to do anything like noise removal or sample splicing. And it seems perfectly reasonable to allow editing of OTOs and FRQs to fix errors.
This is just my opinion though, so please share your own thoughts.
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