Arranging and Copyright

[Dr. Jekyll Mr. Heil]

Hi, this topic has been bugging me a lot lately. Officially, if I'd arrange a piece and made the arrangement public (let's say, recording+sheet music, but non-commercial), and the owner of the copyright would be pissed off about it, or smell money or something, he/she(/the company) could sue. (if that isn't the case please tell me so)

Now, of course most composers are happy about arrangements of their music, (nobuo uematsu, austin wintory etc.) and post them on their social media, but isn't there a possibility that if the game developer company holds the rights (and/or the composer is very evil) that they could sue? (everything regarding this like personal experience is appreciated)

And another thing is, if I'd play a (paid) concert where I'd (partly) play my own arrangements, this would mean twice the trouble, (because it's a commercial use) wouldn't it? (and being from germany, I have to fill out forms for what I play. So I don't know what this would lead to, maybe questions like: "well, did motoi sakuraba give you the permission for this arrangement or not?")

(if this is in the wrong forum category, please move this thread, I just thought "help" was appropriate, and I'm kinda new, so...)

Edited July 24, 2013 by Dr. Jekyll Mr. Heil

[Rozovian]

If you go the legal route - which you always should if there's any money involved, as we were recently reminded of - you don't afaik need permission, you need a license. Not sure about Germany's copyright laws and license stuff, so look up the royalty collecting organizations' information about it. I would expect that there's a form you need to fill out so they know where to send the license money.

To be on the safe side, call one of those organizations and just ask all the questions you have.