Molez sounds

[TimmermanV]

Has anyone ever tried to contact FRACTiLE Games to ask if the sounds from Molez could be used outside of their game? In other words, if they could release the sounds with a license that permits their use in other projects?

[ahockersten]

I have not been in any contact with FRACTiLE and I'm surprised to see they still exist. I think it could be worthwhile to shoot them an email at least.

[TimmermanV]

What would I ask them? Would a reply from them saying "Yes, that's fine, Liero can use the sounds" be enough?

I could ask if they could release the sounds under a license that would permit using them in other software. Is there be any specific license that would be preferred? (e.g. WTFPL)

If they do respond positively, would we technically need to recreate the LIERO.SND file?

[grawlinson]

Keep it simple. Liero is essentially running on fumes as it is, and it's seriously not going to "turn a profit" of any kind, considering the maintainers (well, I speak on behalf of myself... not sure about others) are just doing this for nostalgia/fun.

Since most of the code behind openliero is licensed under BSD-2-Clause, anything similarly permissive would be acceptable. But it's up to the copyright holders, really.

If we can point to any documentation/communications that explicitly states where the sounds from LIERO.SND came from, I do not think we would have to recreate the file. But that is all dependent on their response.

Go ahead and ask, hope for the best. :p

[TimmermanV]

I mailed Mikko and got a response. He explained he cannot re-license the sounds. Some of them are his own work, some of them come from sound packs advertised "royalty free", but unfortunately their "licensing situation is questionable at best". We have his permission to use the sounds, but as he cannot say which ones are legally safe, we can't distribute them together with openliero.

[grawlinson]

Thanks for going through with that & asking! That’s a shame, but completely understandable. OpenLiero already uses the LieroLibre sound pack by default. Although that doesn’t stop enterprising users from using the original sounds…

[ahockersten]

@TimmermanV thanks for checking and getting us an authorative answer on this! I've always heard rumors about their legal status but nothing definite before now.

I'm not someone who knows anything about making sound effects, but the LieroLibre sound pack already sounds very close to the original Liero sounds, so if someone wants to make another sound pack trying to get even closer, that might be interesting.

Someone might also be interested in making an "HD sound pack". I'm personally less invested in Liero's original sounds than graphics (22 kHz mono sounds ages a lot worse than pixel graphics to me) so if someone made new, better, crisper sounds in the spirit of the original sound pack I would seriously consider using that. I'm very grateful the LieroLibre sounds exist, but they are close enough to the originals to remind me of them in an a way where my brain rejects them - it's possible that reimagining them completely would be more palatable (but to anyone reading: don't do it for my sake, do it if you think it sounds fun!).