Voicebank Usage Terms

[Kiyoteru]

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.

 

[heta-tan]

For Aphelia:
Attribution: Both the author and voicebank should be tagged (this is mainly so people can find the bank if they want to use it themselves or so the I can find others uses)
Usage content: Nothing spiteful + intentionally offensive towards a group of people. R-18 and gore can be made without permission.
Commercial use: Must obtain a commercial license through their official site.
Editing the voicebank: OTO + FRQs are allowed to be edited, not the audio files though. I don't feel comfortable with people editing the actual samples.
Redistribution: None whatsoever

I think a lot of users tend to see their UTAU being an extension of themselves or an OC with a voice and make certain restrictions to ensure that their character/voicebank that they've made is protected and isn't used in a way they wouldn't like. Most people (including myself) see their UTAU as being more than instruments that can be spliced, uncredited, etc. due to it being their own voice and/or character.

Also I think people don't want to have their banks be in a similar situation to Rev where he was revamping and redesigning old banks when the owner hasn't been seen for years to consent and the bank had no usage clause/was too vague. but that's another issue that can be discussed somewhere else...

 

[Arissa]

Attribution:

While I don't find it particularly necessary for people to write/tag my name when using my UTAU, I think that my UTAU's name should always be included/tagged.

Usage content:

Using the voicebank/character for any sort of racism, sexism, propaganda, etc. are big no-nos for me. While r-18 is fine, I'm not particularly fond of anything depicting **** or underaged

Commercial use:

Commercial use is fine so long as permission is granted. By that I mean that I'll need to be asked privately with details, such as what exactly is the person trying to do, that kind of thing. Where I stand now, I don't have any intentions of charging someone to use my voicebank commercially, but that may change.


Editing the voicebank:

Oto's and frqs can be edited, the actual audio samples, however, I don't quite like the idea of. Maybe if it's something like cleaning noise or making the voice louder, but as for altering pitch and the like, I'm not very fond towards.


Redistribution:

Bonus files and things like usts I include in my voicebank are things I don't want redistributed. However, stuff like fixed oto and frq configurations from someone I wouldn't mind being redistributed. Same with things like standing images(only if proper credit is given.) However, the whole voicebank cannot be redistributed. Anything like stealing or creating derivatives I wholly forbid.




I think most users have similar rules regarding forbidding things like using the UTAU/voicebank for any kind of discriminatory act. In other areas, however, some users don't include any copyright(meaning you can do almost anything you want) and some users are more restrictive(some making their banks only available privately altogether). As said above, I think a lot of people are attached to their UTAU, and therefore try to protect them from certain situations(not to mention their own rights regarding having created something), like theft, for example.

 

[Kumoito]

Well, I don’t have an UTAU of my own, but the terms of use I see the most often for Japanese voicebanks seem to be something like this:

- Redistribution of any part of the recordings is forbidden, but files made using the voicebank can be redistributed (ex: the .wav output, USTs)

- Editing of the recordings is allowed only for the purpose of noise removal.

- Editing of the oto.ini and frq files is considered separate from editing the recordings and is usually allowed. Most allow redistribution of edited oto.ini, though it’s sometimes required to notify the creator about it first. Frq files are rarely mentioned, but in most cases the used is allowed to edit them but not redistribute them.

- Writing the name of the character/voicebank is usually required, but not the name of the creator

- R18 content usually does not require permission

- Political or religious content is forbidden

- Commercial usage requires permission (most will specify what they consider commercial usage, and some allow “small scale” usage for things like doujins even without permission. But they usually write “I will be happy if you tell me about it”).

I think they are quite reasonable and I never felt that they were too restrictive. I'm not sure how different these are from typical terms of use in the overseas fandom (but I feel like overseas UTAU sometimes have very vague or no terms of use, while I've never seen a Japanese UTAU without terms of use). Most Japanese creators have a character bio for their voicebanks, but at the end they sometimes write "feel free to ignore this", or make the bio very short and vague and say "I'll leave it up to your imagination", so in general the voice is emphasized a lot more than the character aspect.

 

[Kiyoteru]

but files made using the voicebank can be redistributed

That's a good point, you reminded me about rendering services. In the Vocaloid community, people will ask each other for audio renders of specific Vocaloids that they don't own, and I imagined that the same thing would apply to an UTAU. An UTAU in closed distribution or no longer being distributed publicly may need to have terms that address rendering audio and sending it to other people.

Most Japanese creators have a character bio for their voicebanks, but at the end they sometimes write "feel free to ignore this", or make the bio very short and vague and say "I'll leave it up to your imagination", so in general the voice is emphasized a lot more than the character aspect.

This thread is about voicebank usage terms, character/art licensing can be considered a separate entity entirely.

 

[lunari162]

Attribution: This isn't mentioned anywhere in Yuri's readme, but I guess I should add it. I'd like it if you specify that the voicebank is Yuri so I can find your cover more easily. You don't have to credit me, though.
Usage content: Political and hateful/offensive content is prohibited. Explicit R-18 content (as in sexual content) requires permission because she's 13, but if it's not explicit, I guess it's fine. I go by the Vocaloid Lyrics Wiki's templates to determine what falls under this. Religious content is allowed, but it can't be intentionally offensive. Gore is also permitted.
Commercial use: You'd have to contact me directly first. I just want to know who's using Yuri's voicebank for commercial use, there's no license or anything.
Editing the voicebank: As long as you don't steal the files after editing them, you can modify any file in the voicebank.
Redistribution: Oto and frq edits can be redistributed, but you have to tell me first. This is because I might add them to the voicebank itself (with credit, of course). Redistributing the entire voicebank is prohibited.

I'm not really sure which section derivatives would fall under, but those also require permission. Honestly, most of the stuff that requires permission is only because I'd like to know what's going on. I'm probably not going to stop you; if anything, it's great if people want to try something creative!

 

[Kiyoteru]

I'm not really sure which section derivatives would fall under, but those also require permission.

I feel like this would be more of an art/character thing, since you can generally use any flags you want with any voicebank and it wouldn't really be a derivative until you say it's not the same character anymore.

 

[Cocoa]

Attribution: Though not required, it is highly encouraged to list the UTAU’s name and my name.
Usage content: Content that is hate speech or illegal is not allowed to be made using this UTAU.
Commercial use: Commercial use is permitted with notification of me.
Editing the voicebank: Any file in the voicebank can be edited in order to increase the quality of the output.
Redistribution: OTOs, FRQs, and CV to VCV conversions are permitted to be redistributed, as long as they are edited for the purpose of an increase in the quality of the output. Files rendered using the voice bank can be redistributed.

As long as they’re improving it and don’t claim it as their own or anything, then I don’t care what they do to the bank.

 

[Mochlin]

In terms of editing the voicebank would reversing the samples or CV to VCV conversion be allowed? As long as it is for personal use... I reversed some Aiko's samples to make other phoneme combinations...

 

[Kiyoteru]

In terms of editing the voicebank would reversing the samples or CV to VCV conversion be allowed? As long as it is for personal use... I reversed some Aiko's samples to make other phoneme combinations...

This would qualify as audio sample editing.

 

[Shasta]

I feel like my rules are waaaayy too strict compared to these. On Andromeda's 2.0beta is quite literally no to everything, and all bugs need to be reported. Typically for final releases the rules are lightened up, but I've been revising my usage terms for my utaus because they're kinda... Hard to understand in my opinion. Gotta be as clear as possible.

 

[Kiyoteru]

I feel like my rules are waaaayy too strict compared to these. On Andromeda's 2.0beta is quite literally no to everything, and all bugs need to be reported. Typically for final releases the rules are lightened up, but I've been revising my usage terms for my UTAU because they're kinda... Hard to understand in my opinion. Gotta be as clear as possible.

Could you explain in detail what terms you usually have, relating to the 5 points that I mentioned in the original post? It's a bit difficult to compare yours to other people's without those category labels, haha.

 

[Shasta]

Could you explain in detail what terms you usually have, relating to the 5 points that I mentioned in the original post? It's a bit difficult to compare yours to other people's without those category labels, haha.

If it is a private beta:

-No editing whatsoever,
-No distributing anything involving the voicebank (art included.)
-No politics or no hate speech,
-No commercial usage,
-Give credits where due.

But R-18 and religious (if it's not rude,) is ok though.

Then when the voicebank is publicly released (whether it be a final bank or a beta):

-Editing is ok for personal usage
-Redistribution is ok if everything from the original voicebank is included (Redistributing edits is not ok)
-Still no politics or hate speech
-R-18 and religious content is ok (as long as it's not rude.)
-Commercial use is ok
-Give credits where due (voicebank and Arcella.)

The private beta's rules are so strict because well... It's private and generally only between 5 or 10 people have permission to use them..

 

[RaccoonButler]

Huh, some of these things I've never actually thought to consider. In general, the terms for my VBs are as follows:

Attribution: Never stated that VB must be named or manager/voicer must be credited, but specified that the VB cannot be claimed as your own. Notification is apreciated but not required.

Usage Content: follow laws of one's country/region. Hate speech is explicitly not allowed. R-18 is allowed except for songs with shoutacon/lolico-n undertones

Commercial Use: Banks are free to use, but characters require permission

Editing: Edits can be made to oto/frqs

Redistribution: Can be redistributed under the condition that the banks have become lost or the links are dead. However, under no circumstances can they be re-released under another person claming to be the manager/creator. (That last specification was quite recently added for obvious reasons)