You’re not going to believe this: I was permanently banned from both these subreddits, r/SFXLibraries and r/AudioPost for “piracy efforts”! Where or how did I commit “piracy” in any of these reddit posts?! Only adding insult to injury; I got immediately muted from contacting both subreddit admins for 28 days! I didn’t even mention anything pirate-related like keygens or torrents. I just asked for help to locate these sound effect and music libraries. Adding more insult to injury, after my 28 day mute expired, they muted me again for ANOTHER 28 days!
So therefore, I need to ask somewhere else. But even those other sites aren’t fairing any better! - My Deviantart journal included. How can something as simple and innocent as asking where I can acquire this audio file (stock music for Most Shocking Police Videos or Skywalker Sound sound effect) be treated as… a FULL-SCALE FELONY?!
I thought hard and I tried , and low and behold: they all deleted my question or block me because I “attempted illegal shares” or the question doesn’t really fit their forum site. Obviously, when there’s a question, it needs answers! What is an animation video without music or sound effects?! I have high doubts that Alvin Earthworm ever purchased any sprites or sound effects or music for his Super Mario Bros Z.
Why don’t YOU give me advice where I can seek this answer, because I am running out of places to try. And so far, no luck on The VG Resource either. Speaking of which, did they totally forget about iOS Jailbreaking, reverse engineering, and The VG Resource? These are ways to acquire things without getting into trouble.
These sound effects are heard and used literally everywhere (cartoons, movies, TV, and especially video games) . Therefore, no one should bother to care who’s using them, should they? Looking for one law breaker who’s using something very commonly heard is like looking for a needle hidden in a haystack. So I’m certain the head of the copyrighted material wouldn’t waste their time and money hunting down one individual with the “illegally” acquired item - let alone millions of them on this planet . Alot of people have used them for their “crappy” stop motion films and they never had problems. Next thing you know, they’re gonna invent and mandate a license to “drink rainwater falling from the sky”.
Therefore, no one should bother to care who’s using them, should they?
That is indeed correct that nobody should care. However, sometimes people do care, as exemplified by the Kraftwerk v. Pelham case, which has been going on for over 20 years - and the offending material was 2 seconds of drum loop. You can use these sound effects if you can find them, at some risk or you can just find your sfx on https://freesound.org/
Reputable companies that make cartoons, movies, TV, video games will typically buy the rights to use audio samples, and/or produce their own audio content in-house. Not doing so may end up in court, which is likely to be a lot more expensive that paying the license fees.
If you search for “Royalty free music”, there are plenty of places that you can legally obtain music / sfx for use in your own projects. If you need music / sfx for free, here’s some links:
Please note that sounds from these sites may have some restrictions on use (such as crediting the original author). To use music / sfx legally, check and follow the license terms for anything that you use.
I have high doubts that these lego animators ever purchased these sounds. Note: these sound effects were free to download - back when SoundDogs was in control of distributing these sounds at that time period.