A while ago I updated my Terms of Use to express the difference between what I deem to be acceptable “Doujin” use vs non-acceptable “Commercial” use of my UTAUs.
I actually did this after I saw a series of confused tweets by a Chinese UTAU user who wished to make phone charms of Aiko for an UTAU-centric doujin fan-event in Japan. They are a user I admire, and I was very happy to give them permission to use Aiko’s image, and at that point I decided to try to make the clarification between the two on my Terms of Use to prevent future confusion and to allow a bit more freedom for those familiar with doujin works to use my characters/voicebanks (even if I can’t write my terms in multiple languages yet, unfortunately).
I currently do not allow commercial (such as pay-per-download music) use of my UTAUs without explicit permission, though to be honest, I never thought that people had the interest in using the Kikyuunes for such until this past month. Over the course of June, I’ve had 2 instances of people requesting commercial use permission, and ONE instance of commercial use (on a Bandcamp album) without initial granted permission.
I’ve now come to realize that more people than I initially expected may be inclined to use my UTAU commercially other than just friends and colleagues I’ve collaborated with already. In this case, I will be soon drafting a commercial-use license for those interested in using my Kikyuune voicebanks/characters.
I am not yet certain what this license will cost though I doubt it will be over $12. There will first be a digital option for purchase, followed by a physical boxed copy of Aiko that will come packaged with the license, much like the UTAU Namida’s boxed version.
