Can I sell my bands songs?

[Nocktis]

Hello everyone. Great bit of software you have here! My band, Walking Corpse Syndrome, has been looking for a way to port a few of our songs to a Guitar Hero style game. This search has lead me to Frets on Fire. While I've found several posts stating that you can sell the software (with no songs included) since it's open source, my question is: Are there any limitations on selling my bands songs ported to FoF?

Ideally what I'd like to do is offer disks at our show that include the songs from our first album bundled with FoF. Understandably we would not be claiming ownership of FoF. The only songs included would be our songs and since we sell our album for round $10.00 we would want to get at least $10.00 since they're getting the whole album. Before I move on any of this I felt the responsible thing to do would be to ask here. Is there a place where I can find out more info? Thanks for any tips!

http://www.walkingcorpsesyndrome.com
http://www.myspace.com/corpsewalker

[kirbix]

I don't see why not. You could just be selling the master tracks, giving the charts for free to whoever buys the album.

I have no idea how it works, though. This is just guessing.

EDIT: Listening to your band's songs... I'd buy your album if it came with all difficulties for guitar, bass and drums. This is pretty good.

[megasxlrsebas2]

Well, if you gonna bundle a CD with frets on fire and ONLY your band songs, they at least need to be with separated audio, since is your band and have an album.

Also all dificulties, instruments , sections,Starpower/Overdrive , labels, previews, midi lyrics and most importantly Percfect Charts, because you will have to pay to get this.

[Kermit4Prez]

There might be some copyright infringement. Try emailing the FoF makers.

[Lysdestic]

I do believe this is the proper license.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.txt

[BSRaven]

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price.

Therefore, sell away.

[Lysdestic]

Exactly, to the best of my knowledge as a Linux User, you are free to release the game, which would technically be free, whilst charging a price for packaging and your copyrighted songs.

The thing I would wonder, is where are you going to find someone to fret your songs for free, knowing that you are going to sell them. xD

[Nocktis]

I'll be freting them. While this will probably be a substantial undertaking, I wouldn't be in a band if I were afraid of a challenge. Thanks for the info guys. I'll do the right thing and still contact FoF directly but this gets the ball rolling. I appreciate the info.

[BSRaven]

No problem. If stuff ever gets too tough, drop me a line.

[Lysdestic]

I'll be freting them. While this will probably be a substantial undertaking, I wouldn't be in a band if I were afraid of a challenge. Thanks for the info guys. I'll do the right thing and still contact FoF directly but this gets the ball rolling. I appreciate the info.

No problem, and I just feel I should be clear and state that my comment about finding someone to fret them was meant in light-hearted jest. I'm sure that regardless of pay or not, there would be plenty of people here willing to help you should you need it.

Good luck. :)

[R4nd0M]

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

"You" in this context refers to the licensee (ie. literally you). While GPL states that program is free by definition, anyone can charge for packaging and transferring the software. So go ahead. You're legally free to do what you plan to.

[cragfinman]

This is a great Nocktis, good luck with it. Read the GNU license because that is what FOF is released under, and I'm pretty sure it allows you to sell it with your own songs as long as you credit the original creators of FOF, as people have said.

[Lysdestic]

One thing you may want to do is remove the songs that come with the game.

I believe they are under a different license, however, I'm not sure.

[MoN01]

I really hope you manage to get PROFESSIONAL charts done for the songs, thats the keypoint here. Nobody will buy those songs if they get better charts for... well free.

[Nocktis]

Yep, it's just good business to make sure the product you're offering is as good as it should be. I'm going to be working on a display where fans can "demo" the songs at our shows. I'm shooting for having the software installed on a laptop with a LCD monitor out then hooking a Guitar Hero controller to the demo. All just drawing board stuff at the moment but if and when these comes together I'll be sure to post some pics and let everyone know how it turns out.