I have scavenged from the web around 40 different Enterpise-D computer voice samples (by the late Mrs Barrett), mainly for my own geeky pleasure (to make my PC sound more like a Trek computer ). Most of them are 1~2 sec long, saying stuff like "Access to files granted", "Authentication required", "Warning" etc

Can we use any of them in the game?

In any case, you can find them here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1208001/computer_sounds.zip

Cheers

Nope cant use samples or anything that wasnt created by us.

Agreed.

Silly question then: See the second photo in this post by Mike:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4127&p=65501#p65482

It contains several close up photos of Archer, Phlox, Hoshi etc, but their photos were not created by us either. I guess we can use them under the fair use
clause:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

So, what is the difference between the 1 sec sounds and the photos?

Well ok im not sure about pics. My thinking is we should try to have everything created from scratch so no mixed audio to make music it should be composed and played from scratch, video from scratch, code from scratch, etc. That way no one can complain over copyright as much.

Well im sure the other guys have an opinion on this but imo we should try to have unique things so even tho their trek they should be all made from scratch. Photos which would be hard to do might not make it to the final game i duno unless im overreacting lol but could always just grab photos of convention dress ups i guess tho then again im not sure.

You see, likeness's are a bit of a touchy subject as i found out from sto as people arnt allowed to recreate ppl from trek using foundry (public made missions) so if they cant then we probably cant im thinking.

I agree that this is best course of action because you never know when that horde of blood thirsty lawyers might come knocking at our doors

Star Trek belongs to CBS Paramount. They have looked the other way on fan projects where there is no money made. An actor's likeness or voice in a CBS Paramount made Star Trek project is also the property of CBS Paramount. The actor was paid in full for the work and CBS Paramount owns all that content. The actor can not come after you. Everything we do here depends on CBS Paramount not taking action against us.

That image at the top of this page on the left was used in a calendar. The company that printed it has an agreement with CBS Paramount for the license to use Star Trek content. The printing company may or may not have grounds in there agreement with CBS Paramount to take action on their own against us. With no profit they likely would not act.

So, as far as I understand the whole situation, we could use these sounds as long as we don't make profit out of it. Of course, as skeeter said it would be best if we just do the various sounds ourselves.

That is my understanding and yes, original is nice. On the other hand her voice is classic and hard to give up. It is up to Mike.

Do keep in mind he is likely just using those photos for layout scale and testing, they might not even be what is planned for the final version.

There's really not much sense in agonizing over copyright details on "little things" like sound effects if the material is owned by CBS/Paramount. There are far greater copyright/IP issues involved in using the Star Trek name and various other trademarks. If CBS/Paramount suddenly decide to come after us, it won't be because we used computer voice samples without permission. For material that comes from other sources, we should strive to only use material that has clear licensing terms or which was obtained with permission.

That said, I would prefer to use original content in cases where we can produce something of comparable quality to what we would otherwise borrow (or even better quality). So far, we've done very well with graphics and music. We haven't done as well with sound effects like LCARS computer cues (chirps, blips, whirls, etc.) or artificial-sounding computer voices. We don't really have any audio engineers who know how to create that sort of thing. I'm perfectly alright with using audio clips from Trek series and movies. My only real concern in this area is consistency--we can't start mixing our own recordings with Trek recordings if they sound noticeably different. One way around this would be to use computer voice samples and sound effects for UI interaction only, and have our own recordings be more like alien "advisors". I tend to think that makes more sense anyway--better to hear a real Klingon proclaim, "We have constructed a new starbase!" than a computer.

Build the spot and we'll fill the spot.

The Bash

Blaze is are new Klingon voice but after the Klingon Intro video I do not have anything else for him to record. We recorded a wide range of lines on SharePoint for all the races but have not, as far as I know, used any of it in game.

So Ken, are you saying we don't have text for the other races as well as saying that there isn't a way built into the program for running a voiceover narration / video?

CB

We have a lot of text and nearly as many recordings already made. I have not heard that any of it is being used.

Audio cues have been a somewhat low priority to implement, but not having been used yet doesn't mean they won't be used eventually.

Q'apla