Are sound effects copy written?

John C Lyons

John C Lyons

Veteran
There are some really recognizable sound effects out there on the net, like say the whole Star Wars library. Are these and all other effects that don't come with an audio editor or on a license free cd copywritten?
 
I thought about this myself, plenty of familiar screams in the movies and stuff like that, I don't know where to even start looking for these sound effects. This also goes with the traditional music you hear in movies, either it was on some random CD that's hard to find or it's a studio only track (like a lot of the themes you hear during movie trailers). I think one thing to look forward to is the Sony Sound Effects Library which should be coming out this month for like $300 or so. Hopefully that will have a lot of stuff on it.
 
Absolutely they're copyright-protected. Just like a photograph, a recording is protected by copyright -- whether it's a sound effect or a song or a voice or a musical riff, etc.

There's nothing to stop you from recording a sound that's similar, but using someone else's sound effects without permission would be a copyright violation.
 
Many companies sell sets of sound-effects with "buy-out" licenses. A decade ago I got a client to buy me a 100 CD library ("Sound Ideas", I think) for a film we were ADRing.

You'll find making your own effects faster, cheaper, and they'll sound better. It's a lot of fun too.
 
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