"LucasArts Soundtracks" - the site is finally UP

[Laserschwert]

Yeah, I guess the game just uses the original soundtracks...

It's strange: People keep asking me for soundtracks like "Rebel Assault", the "Jedi Knight" series or several "Phantom Menace" games... they all just use the movie soundtracks.

I should put an FAQ on my site...

Regarding the "pirating" issue, the music I put up is all either taken from CDs that aren't available anymore, or ripped directly from the games. Unfortunately some of these cues can still be found on the "Best of LucasArts Soundtracks"-CD (some of them in different versions though). In fact this does make me feel a little better about it, though still it isn't legal at all. It's unnecessary to start a discussion about something that clear.

Still, without trying to sound like a martyr, I feel that it's some kind of "evidence of incapacity" on behalf of LucasArts, that the fans have to do their job. I mean, is it just me, or is there more support of the fanbase offered by other companies? Without the need to look for an example, my page fits perfectly here: These soundtracks are worth being made public OFFICIALLY... either for purchase (I'd be GLAD to buy them) or in the form of downloads, if the demand isn't strong enough to justify producing CDs.

BUT, I might be wrong here, because LucasArts hasn't yet taken any actions to shut my site down. Maybe they don't know about it (though I doubt that), or they simply don't care... the latter one leaving me double-minded - because it's sad in one way, but great in another way.

EDIT:
Now they have.

Though not entirely. They asked my to take down all "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" related content, since the copyrights to these soundtracks do not lie with LucasArts. (I guess Fox and Paramount have a say here as well). Maybe even Factor5 (the "Rogue Squadron" series) and Bioware ("Knights of the Old Republic") had some complaints.

Sorry.

[ramy]

I think it is very interesting to note that they only asked you to take down Starwars and Indiana Jones. You did say that this could be due to other companies other than LucasArts and I'd like to hope so. But I don't really see what they have to lose by having Dark Forces and Fate of Atlantis on your site. Honestly I don't see who would be losing money on something like this, even if it's an ownership issue. Oh well.

[Lundquist]

Agreed. I could understand it if the soundtracks that were asked to be taken down contained already published music like 'Star Wars' which is owned by Bantha Music I think.
I wouldn't be surprised if the department that send you the mail didn't know enough about the music in all the games to know they include original music, and that they (the department) just assume it's all taken directly from the movie soundtracks.

[Laserschwert]

Don't worry, I am trying to perform as much damage control as possible, which includes letting the soundtracks which were originally done in MIDI-format stay on the site (which includes your stuff, Ken... by the way, how's it going?).

[The Tingler]

I think that they're just referring to stuff available on soundtracks, i.e. Indiana Jones theme, Star Wars theme. Original music will probably be okay... I don't really want to see Emperor's Tomb or Knights of the Old Republic go down... but certainly not Infernal Machine, I haven't done that one yet and that's the Holy Grail of LucasArts Music!

[Laserschwert]

It's pretty clear what they mean by "both the Star Wars and Indiana Jones content needs to come down"... that's what they wrote, that's what they mean.

[Jake]

I think it's actually a John Williams thing. LucasArts couldn't put out a soundtrack to Emperor's Tomb without paying a zillion dollars because it's derived from a work by John Williams. I suspect that's the same or similar reasoning at work here.

[Laserschwert]

But it's not an official site... so the basic question would be, why would LucasArts care? Why would the copyright holder contact LucasArts, instead of me?

[Lundquist]

That's a very valid question - one that I can't figure out an answer to either.
I wonder what the answer would be if you asked them? - Though it often seems that LEC has nonsense autoresponses lying around when you ask them questions.

I wonder if it is a John Williams thing? That would also mean that he would have rights to the JP3 score over Don Davis who actually wrote the score (but with included JW themes). Does that seem viable?

P.S. Told you I'd be up and running in no time

[Laserschwert]

Originally posted by Lundquist Told you I'd be up and running in no time

Oh, in this case: BACK TO WORK!!

[ramy]

As you said, and I agree, those that asked you to take the SW and IJ content off the site probably didn't know the difference between the John Williams score and original game midi music.

To them it may seem like all the same music, but I really don't think it is. Maybe if they know the difference between the original score music, and the original game midi music you'd be able to get those great redone midis back up.

Anyone can buy the original score music from a music store, but you can't really find redone game midi music.

[daltysmilth]

That sucks. I was in the middle of downloading Infernal Machine. I would have had it completely downloaded in one night if not for my dastardly 56k connection. Man.

I wish more composers would follow Bill Brown's example and put samples of their stuff on their own websites. (Bill Brown is the composer of the Rainbow Six series and virtually every Tom Clancy game, in case you didn't know.)

I guess it's encouraging that they didn't make you take down the Lucasarts-owned soundtracks, though.

As to the speculation over John Williams' involvement, I don't know how much control the composer has over who owns their music. On the Simpsons Season 3 DVD, they said in order to get permission to use the Indiana Jones music for "Bart's Friend Falls In Love", they had to contact Steven Spielberg. So I guess he owns those rights, or owned them however many years ago that episode was made. Who owns them now? Who knows?

[Laserschwert]

I am still waiting for the LucasArts public relations department to get back on me on this topic.

[JBRAA]

Can you post what games you removed? So I can grieve to what soundtracks I missed out on downloading. Kotor, Dark Forces, FOA, Tomb, and ....

[Laserschwert]

- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
- Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
- Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Star Wars: Force Commander
- Star Wars: Battle for Naboo
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II - Rogue Leader
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III - Rebel Strike
- Star Wars: Dark Forces

[Jake]

I think the rights to the music LucasArts requested be taken down are a lot more complicated legally than you guys think. I don't quite understand why some of you are acting like you know everything.

I doubt LucasArts is somehow confused. Like I said, they couldn't put out a soundtrack to the Emperor's Tomb at least in part because Williams doesnt want game music or things like that based on his work being released outside of the game or whatever. Its apparently a stipulation of using things derived from his material... but that's just one random example that I heard somewhere.

I'm sure there are a lot of other reasons that the things immediately asked down were the ones based on Lucas film properties and not LucasArts games properties.

Taking random guesses at the problem and then arriving at the conclusion that "LucasArts is probably confused" is really ridiculous.

Originally posted by daltysmilth
As to the speculation over John Williams' involvement, I don't know how much control the composer has over who owns their music.

Good lord. I didn't mean to imply that Williams was personally involved in this or something if that's your implication.

What I was implying is that the music for the original games, like Day of the Tentacle or Monkey Island, LucasArts 100% owns all the rights to those. There are no licensing issues with them whatsoever. However, the games that are based off of the Star Wars or Indy licenses, LucasArts games only has some control over them, especially assets like the musical score.

Even though LucasArts is closely related to LucasFilm, they still have to license the rights to some things, and my guess is that the musical score is one of them.

Who knows. Maybe in the future they will request Jan takes down all the soundtracks. That would suck and be a bit of a stupid move on their part, but it's within their legal rights.

I think its very likely that the reason they immediately asked for the SW and Indy stuff to go down is because they don't have any control over whether or not that stuff can stay there. They don't want to have to tangle with the rightful owners (be it George, John Williams, Fox, whoever) coming and knocking on their door about why music that they licensed is randomly appearing for download online.


I don't know for sure if that's what's going on, but to me that sounds far more real than "I bet they got confused."

[QueZTone]

Originally posted by Jake
They don't want to have to tangle with the rightful owners (be it George, John Williams, Fox, whoever) coming and knocking on their door about why music that they licensed is randomly appearing for download online.
[/B]

let those rightful owners come to Laeschwart. Why should lucasarts feel and be held responsible?

[MrManager]

Originally posted by QueZTone
let those rightful owners come to Laeschwart. Why should lucasarts feel and be held responsible?

Because the music is ripped from their products perhaps? ¬

[freddie]

If you do not do what LucasArts asks you to do, then perhaps next they ask you to remove all of the content that they do hold the copyright to.

[Alien426]

Originally posted by Jake
Even though LucasArts is closely related to LucasFilm, they still have to license the rights to some things, and my guess is that the musical score is one of them.

I agree. A lot of people think "Hey LucasArts, Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound and so on are all the same. They all belong to George Lucas. So why do they pretend there are differences?". But that's not how it is. The divisions have to be financially successful individually or else might get shut down. If person one is employed at LucasArts and does some work for ILM, there will be an invoice from LucasArts to ILM.

[Laserschwert]

Altogether I think this time LucasArts isn't the bad guy... I guess it would've run much less smoothly for me, if the holder of the copyrights would've contacted me directly. I think the fact that this gets handled through LucasArts spares me some serious legal trouble.

Again: LucasArts didn't ask me to take down THEIR stuff.

[The Tingler]

I suppose... at least the site's still up.

[Lundquist]

I personally find it odd that LEC asked for ALL of the star wars and Indy music to be taken down, I mean, the DF soundtrack I made is also up on the DF mod for JA website, and they've never been asked to take it down - and LEC knows about that mod and the site so...

[lagagaffe]

Will you add the Full Throttle Soundtracks or anything else ?

[Laserschwert]

Yeah, Full Throttle will be added eventually. But after that there's not much more left to add.

(@Udvarnoky: Shhht! )

[daltysmilth]

Just out of curiosity, when did Lucasarts first contact you about removing the soundtracks?

[Laserschwert]

A few days ago.

Actually Jake contacted me about two weeks ago, because Ronda Scott from LucasArts' public relations department has talked to him about several things, and one of them was my site. Basically Jake prepared me, because Ronda said, that she was going to mail me about it.

And so she did.

[ramy]

I think we should be thankful to LucasArts that they allow THEIR content on the web, and it's not their fault that they asked you to do what you had to do.

[daltysmilth]

WARNING- LENGTHY, RAMBLING POST- FEEL FREE TO SKIP

Well, I'm sure Lucasarts is doing more than they have to. I mean, they would be completely in their right to ask you to take down all the files, not just the Star Wars and Indiana Jones ones. Or Lucasarts could have just contacted the copyright holders, and they might not have been as reasonable. I mean, just look at the recent lawsuits against websites that just had the lyrics of songs. I know the law is the law, but it seems to me that your site wasn't much of a financial threat to John Williams or anyone he's affiliated with. It's not like being able to download the Dark Forces soundtrack for free on your site is going to affect the sales of, say, the rerelease of the Star Wars Special Edition soundtracks. I know that's nothing to do with copyrights, but in all humility, I think it's a good point I just thought I'd point that out.

I kind of wish maybe Lucasarts had said something like "have all those Star Wars and Indiana Jones files down in two weeks" or something like that. Still, I suppose that would have been less friendly than explaining that they don't own the copyrights and that it would be in your best interest to take down all the stuff they don't own the copyright to.

Another thing, I don't quite understand why you can create a midi file that's a note for note transcription of something composed by someone else and it's okay, but if you make an mp3 from that midi, you're violating the copyright? Shouldn't it work both ways? Shouldn't all the sites that have Star Wars or Indiana Jones midi files be force to take those files down? (I'm not saying I want this to happen, I'm just saying there seems to be a double standard.) Does any of what I'm saying make any sense?

[Laserschwert]

As far as I know MIDIs of copyright protected material break the same law as MP3s.

But I asked Ronda about it... I hope that she'll answer to my many questions.

[Kraag]

Honnestly I think it's too bad that you had to remove StarWars and Indy musics.
And I think I'm not the only one to think that

But I can understand that; after all musics of these games are pretty similar to music CDs that are still being sold so...

I just hope that some arrangement can be found with copyright holders if you are trying to find an arrangement. (Yeah, I just re-finished Indy4 and I have to say that I'd love being able to listen to these musics )

In any case, I think LucasArts is pretty nice to allow the other MP3s: they could have asked for the site to be shut down.

And I want to thank you for the site, too: it's sooo great to listen to these musics again and this time in a pretty high quality

[Samuel Dravis]

Thanks for putting them up; I enjoyed listening to them.

[Seby007]

Hi! Sorry I am not very good in Englisch, so I haven't read the whole thread. But I have a small wish: I have the music itself, but I haven't the nice cover! Without songs I believed thats allowed to give the covers free?!
thanks

[mageofthesands]

Originally posted by Laserschwert
Yeah, Full Throttle will be added eventually. But after that there's not much more left to add.

Armed & Dangerous
Secret Weapons Over Normandy
Gladius
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Afterlife
Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion
RTX Red Rock
Ballblazer Champions
Herc's Adventures
Wrath Unleashed
Maniac Mansion
Finished Zak McKracken

Options are limited, but there are still games out there not Star Wars. Might not be the best music, but it's there.

Oh yeah, love the site. Shame about the lose of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Liked that music.

[Alien426]

SWON and RTX would be part of the games that walk the line. They have official soundtracks (2 CDs in SWON's case) and it would be so-so legitimate at best to publish their music on the net.

If someone could get their hands on Armed & Dangerous' music, now that would be cool! It might lead to more difficulty, since the game is only published not developed by LucasArts. Don't know if it isn't Planet Moon, who own the rights to the music.

[JBRAA]

Originally posted by Alien426
If someone could get their hands on Armed & Dangerous' music, now that would be cool! It might lead to more difficulty, since the game is only published not developed by LucasArts. Don't know if it isn't Planet Moon, who own the rights to the music.

Do you mean music as in any kind of music from the game, or a whole game soundtrack? =) If 10 songs will be fine, you know where to look. http://mojoart.mixnmojo.com/original-art/music.shtml The Official site has about 6 songs in its internal flash music player, and Planet Moon gave "Planet Moon Central" 6 songs as promotion in a 176 MB zip file with about 6 songs in wav format. You can try to download it here (the javascript might not work with your firewall or something): http://www.3ddownloads.com/planetmoo.../AnD_music.zip Unfortunally there is dataerrors in two of the files. And yeah, I agree a 30 track (just guessing) game soundtrack would be cool.

[Alien426]

Holy cripes! There's music from Psychonauts!!

[elTee]

Mojo's had three mp3's from Psychonauts ever since they returned from the downtime, with that Peter McConnel interview. I can't listen to them now cos they're on my external HD, but as far as I remember they're very DOTT.

[daltysmilth]

What about a complete or at least expanded Sam & Max Hit the Road soundtrack? I'd go for that. Or how about soundtracks from Lucasarts/Totally Games' other WWII flight sim games? I'd be interested to hear the music from Secret Weapons of the Luftwafte, for instance.

And in case you thought I was done whining about the Star Wars/Indiana Jones music, is there any way you could contact the copyright holders and work out some kind of deal? Perhaps if you offered only to put up a limited number of the soundtracks, or only putting up a limited number of the tracks, or something. In the meantime, perhaps we could all get an online petition going. Just a thought.

Also, I suppose there's no chance of getting an X-Wing or Tie Fighter Soundtrack now, is there?

[JBRAA]

Originally posted by daltysmilth
What about a complete or at least expanded Sam & Max Hit the Road soundtrack?

Zaarin from http://s-island.mixnmojo.com has a big Sam & Max soundtrack. 45 or 50 songs I think. It is in Ogg format. Just letting you know..