Freesound Forums

Hello there,
There are some mainstream SFX which by their wide use, may seem public domain, just like when the internet claims an image for memes.

I wish with the help of the community to clarify the licencing of some popular SFX/samples in order to give credit where it's due, and have a list people can refer to in case they're concerned about licencing for their project.

For example the good old "ahhh" scratch sample, the Willhelm scream, the Amen Break, to the more modern popular meme sounds like the Fart reverb and Cola Yippee.

If we were to seek and trace origine and licencing of popular sounds/samples. How should we proceed to list our findings? Should there be a forum thread per sound or just a comment under here?
I think the latter for now, maybe one day we would upgrade to a searchable list on some website or doccument.

So if you're curious about a sound and its licence, please feel free to share your findings or leads here below!

The Willhelm Scream seems to be public domain.

Thanks to Craig Smith https://blog.freesound.org/?author=14 it seems like it was originally made for the "Sunset Editorial collection" which was donated to USC Cinema (A school) in 1990. While not 100% clear about its licencing, I assume it's public domain (as shared by Craig Smith and Wikipedia). I think Craig Smith worked with the school so he would have their permission to share in public domain.

Question is, is the licence given with the tapes, or is it a case of "we have copies but the licence holders are lost?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wilhelm_Scream.ogg
https://blog.freesound.org/?p=1515
Huge thanks to Craig Smith's https://blog.freesound.org/?author=14

I presume there's some grey areas around sounds like these and licencing. But so far the best trace I have found leads to public domain.

And it is available here as such
https://freesound.org/people/craigsmith/sounds/675810/

The German Cola Yippee kid sound,

https://youtu.be/vDWlhQjGjoc?si=X_cPCAe5dQQI-2E3
https://www.myinstants.com/en/instant/yippee-55847/

From : https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/german-cola-kid-yippee
Origine TikTok. "The video originated sometime in September of 2020, though it's unclear where it was first posted. Reposts began appearing in early 2021."

Given there's only reposts, I would presume the original TikTok has been taken down.
This makes Licencing and Licence owner hard to find.

My take on it is, this is best not to use/share the sound, as if the user didn't hold their upload nor re-uploaded it themselves, it's safe to presume they no longer want it on the internet.
Even if we could attribue the sound to someone, I wouldn't be in favour of sharing it without their permission!

To further complexify things, it was made (and probably shared) by a minor. We (the internet) would need permission from either the creator once they grow up, or permission from the parent.

So all in all, I think the original Yippee sound, as much as I like it, I believe it cannot be fairly used or shared at the current time.

The "Ahhh" scratch sample
Although it's widespread use in Djing as THE default scratch sample, the ahh from "Change the Beat” (B-side), Fab 5 Freddy ft. Beside (1982)", seems to be copyrighted and not public domain nor Creative Commons. The rights should be held by the label Celluloid Records? (http://www.celluloidrecords.net/ seems like the website has expired)

Informally, take this with a grain of salt.
Despite it's wide use there seems to have never been an issue and I'm unaware of any expression of the artist/label for people to not use the sample.
I, just a random dude on the internet, would think it's totally fine to use in your projects.
But as far as I'm aware, the sample cannot be hosted here.

I would dare the community, to share words through a vocoder And any relevant vocoder settings to get close to that sound so we can perhaps make a surly public domain or creative commons licenced scratch sample.