Quote: Original post by Funkymunky
I was wondering if it's ok to distribute a copy of a song with your game (like, survivor's "eye of the tiger" for example) since it isn't a commercial product. My guess is no, but I'd love to hear someone tell me that it is legal.

The fact that it's not a commercial product doesn't actually make any difference whatsoever. It's just that noncommercial guys tend not to be worth suing... as far as the contest is concerned, you need to have permission from the copyright holder to use their music, and this extends to using music that has been "rescored" - e.g. if someone has put together a MIDI version of the Super Mario Bros theme and released it to the public, you still need to have permission from Nintendo to use it.

Quote: And how about if it was a demo you were showing to a company. Could it include commercially released music then? (since no-one but the execs will see it anyway)

That depends on whether the execs are really, really bored and looking to cause trouble for you [smile]

Quote: And finally how about original compositions. Any stipulations on music you create yourself for use in the game?

That's absolutely fine; just be aware of the source materials you use (instrument sounds, samples, etc), as some of them might have conditions attached.