You Heard VGM WHERE?

I'm quite certain I heard the MGS2 main theme played during a mass display segment for some national festivities some years back.

But more often than not, I hear VGM tunes in Taiwan and Hong Kong drama serials my parents watch. And I'll be wondering: "Wait a minute, that sounds awfully familiar...".

I'm really not sure how these production companies get the rights to use the music but in any case...

There's one popular Taiwanese drama serial on TV now that will play "Waiting for Something Awakens" from Parasite Eve during scenes of intrigue and mystery.

Many years back, another popular Taiwanese period production played some tracks from Xenogears, notably excerpts from "Light from the Netherworld" during action sequences and the Black Moon forest theme when there's mystery in the air.

Even before that, there was this Hong Kong vampire drama series that would often play "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" or "Succession of Witches" from FF8 whenever a female antagonist made an apperance.

Funny how I can remember the tunes but not the names of the shows.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

For the longest time, I was on the impression, erroneous or otherwise, that these production companies simply used VGM in their shows without paying the rights owners.

And that the rights owners were not as active in clamping down on unlicensed use of game music as the major record companies.

So TV production companies might have thought that the rights owners wouldn't notice short snippets of VGM being slipped into their hour-long TV shows. Also, the music composers for the TV series might be the ones who slip in the VGM and the producers etc don't even realise it because they can't recognise the VGM tunes as originating from games.

But you're probably right, Shin, and I'm being too cynical.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

That certainly makes sense. But there's still the possibly related problem of how VGM bootlegs are still around (I had the misfortune of buying some from a brick and mortar store last year thinking they were the real deal). If the VGM rights owners can clamp down on unlicensed use of their tunes in TV shows, then why not VGM bootlegs?

One explanation I can think of is possibly an issue with potentially weak intellectual property rights laws in certain countries for specific types of recorded media (but I'm no legal expert so...). Another reason is that perhaps it makes more sense to sue a TV production company which could be rolling in more dough than a VGM bootleg outfit.

Anyways, this is starting to go off topic but it definitely helps me see some issues from another perspective. :P

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.