Legality of sampled sound clips in an iPhone app [closed]

Question

Does anyone know the legality of using sampled sound clips (specifically spoken words) from movies as part of an iPhone app?

Answer 1

Sounds like nothing you should do. For freesounds, look here -> www.freesound.org

Answer 2

If you give it away for free, US law MAY support it as fair use. I'd give it good odds.

If you sell it, it is NOT EVER fair use under US law. (Edit - see below)

AFAIK, even if you do not live or work in the US, selling it in the US (specifically the iPhone store) would make the product have to follow US laws.

edited:

to clarify, the courts judge fair use on 4 criteria:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2. the nature of the copyrighted work;

3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

(From Wikipedia, note that its license permits usage of its text for these purposes)

If you sell this, it would violate 1, above. The other 3 may mitigate your violation of 1, but it is risky. If you do violate it, you open yourself up for massive damages and an injunction against selling your product. Even if you win, it'll be a long fight, and likely expensive (even if you do eventually get court costs paid by the rights holder).

Thus, while it may not be true that it's not ever fair use, in any case such as this, I act as though it is true. Allowing usage within a commercial scope was intended to allow people such as movie/book/media reviewers to use excerpts and screencaps to enhance or demonstrate their points, etc.

The use of movie sound bytes to enhance your product creates an association between the movie and your product in the mind of the user, linking their existing opinions of the movie to your product. It substantially enhances your product, allowing it to stimulate another sense group.

The odds of getting pegged for infringement may be very low, depending on your app's visibility. The odds of defending fair use, however, will also be low, and the potential cost, IMHO, severely outweighs the gains (especially since it would be a much more likely target for litigation if it became popular).