That will teach me to read the directions, Eh??

That will teach me to read the directions, Eh??

I have been playing around with my Windows Movie Maker software and TS2. I am working on two stories. One of them I was considering entering in the new contest because it's about a day in the life of one of my Uni students. It's set to music, almost like a music video. It's set to "Breathe" by Michelle Branch, and it's about this girl falling in love with her best friend. (awwww! JMP officially has my permission to puke now. LOL)

Anyway, I go to read the checklist of rules while I am cleaning it up, to make sure I do it right. Put the little NVidia symbol and the "Made with Sims 2 Movie Maker" comercial crap on there. Check. Movie must be under 3 minutes in length. I can shorten some of the sequences, so check. Music must be one of the song approved by the Maxis or something original of your own, no copywrited material. %&*^%$&**%$!!!!! So I have to take off the song that gives my sim a voice (in a way) and use some stupid Similish Crap that I have already disabled in my audio controls in game and put on my own MP3's because I hate them!!!! It fit so well with the song!!!

You know, I think I'm going to leave it alone for now, upload it to the BBS, and then link to it and let you guys enjoy it. It probably wouldn't have won anyway. Romantic little music vidoes don't usually catch the attention of Film Professors, anyway. It's like the Acadamy Awards: The really good movies usually don't win. It took 3 years before they finally gave one of the LOTR movies a "Best Picture" Oscar, and I thought the 1st one was better.

 

You mean for the contest or before I post it to the exchange?? Becauase here's the requirements for the contest:

Requirements

• Movies entries can only use your original music, , or the downloadable music tracks offered from the Tunes page in the "Cool Stuff" section of www.thesims2.com website. Personal voice-over is also permitted. However, no movies featuring copyrighted material, including audio from movies, or other copyrighted music, or any 3rd party properties, will be accepted for entry in this Contest.

So I take this to mean that if I use a regular MP3 of any kind, regardless of getting permission, then I won't be allowed to enter it.

 

Josh is advising you about any use of copyrighted material. Theoretically the publisher can sue you for damages if you use music without permission (and permission usually has to be paid for!) In practise the publisher would only be apt to sue if there was evidence that you hadn't even bought the original and you were obviously involved in substantial copyright piracy. In addition you have the extra worry that Maxis/EA Games might decide to act all medieval over your decision to use their equipment to disseminate your illegal wares, citing defamation, and commercial damage to the their good reputation.

Be safer all round to use extremely old recordings or even the free downloads from sources like http://www.download.com/ where you can be sure of finding artists who actually want people to spread their stuff around (suitably credited) in the hope that their work will be seized upon by the next big ad campaign ...

 

Yeah, I know, Lars from Metalica will come and steal my firstborn if I download things off Kazaa or something. (That's a joke, Nice Lawyer People out there. Please don't sue me! I deleted it, I swear!!)


Anyway, I finished it with the song I like last night just for me to enjoy. There's one of the college rock songs that I might download and use for the Exchange. The finished product is too big to upload, anyway. It's 12 meg, and the limit for the Exchange is 10 meg.

Oh, well, my Hubby thought it looked cool, and my baby makes me play it over and over. LOL

 

KristalRose


I have the perfect solution for you! Why not record your own version of the song, perhaps with a few cats wailing & nails on chalkboards. Of course singing in Simlish! - If I had the ability I'm sure i would be able to record the song perfectly - my voice harmonises perfectly with such noises!

 

Do you not like that song??

 

You, of course, do realize that this "contest" is entirely rigged and you won't win? These things are ALWAYS rigged. I mean, ask yourself: Have you ever won one of these? (If so, you definitely should know by now that they're rigged) Has anyone you KNOW ever won one? I don't think so. I'd put money down on the fact that you won't win, which means this is a monumental waste of time and effort.

 

Sims2 movie music

There are thousands of movies on the Sims2 website using all kinds of music--most of the movies are music videos. Have all those kids gotten permission to use those songs in their movies? Are they paying to use them? What about all the fansites with music videos? How much does permission cost? I even found a movie through the Sims2 BBS that had a piece of one of the Star Wars films in it (a space ship landing.) I borrowed some of the music from an Ion Storm game--very atmospheric music--for my movie (which no one here has noticed yet, by the way) We really did buy the game, too. Should I email Ion Storm?

OK, so my movie is only done thru 3 chapters so far, loaded up on www.pharaohfarrow.com, and it's a little hard to follow (especially the murder) because there's no narration, but it sure is atmospheric .

 

Like I said copyright owners are only apt to prosecute when there is evidence of wholesale piracy, or gross misrepresentation, or libellous or defamatory usage, or usage in a way intended to damage the copyright owner's reputation or wealth.

 

You know what, JMP, You're right. There is probably no way I'd win. We all know that what Maxis likes is blood and gore in their movies, and I have none of those. LOL But I wanted to try to make a movie for me, to show off my Sims and test my creativity. In a way, we're alike: We both play TS2 to test our creativity. You make wonderful hacks, I make stories. That's the great thing about sims: Everyone gets something diffrent out of it.

Lynet: I have seen all those music videos, too. There's one on Sim Stories that is just fabulous. It's done to a Five For Fighting song, "100 Years to Live", and the person chronicled the life of a Sim from his teens, his time in college, all the way up to his death. It brought tears to my eyes, it was so good! The creater really followed the song and did some incredible things with the movie editor she used.

Mirelly: The music industry is really looking for people who use programs like "Kazaa" and "Grokster" to trade mp3's. It's horrible!! Anyone who is sharing an average of 100 files can be targeted, and the laws state that anyone sharing any copyrighted files can be sued. They aren't going after people who are professional pirates. They are going after teenagers and college students who are uploading mp3's and burning CD's for their own personal use. They are taking internet providers and colleges to court to make them turn over the IP addresses of their users so they can sue them!! One famous case was a young girl of 12, who lived with her single mother in New York City. The girl had a huge amount of files, but she was twelve!!! And her mother had to go into debt to to the record industry for a little over $3,000 settlement. I completely understand that the music industry needs to have copyrights honored. It's the same as a sim skinner who has a pay site and then their stuff gets uploaded to the exchange where people can download it for free. It's not fair. But I personally feel that the Record Companies are going a little overboard and should target bigger criminals and leave little children and poor college students alone.


Okay, I'm going to end my rant before I get banned or the thread locked for being off topic.