Honestly, I'm not sure how it works. IOSYS themselves are creating a derivative work — they're already taking ZUN's music and just remixing it and adding lyrics. Of course, Japanese copyright law has some wiggle-room concerning that (the copyright holders have the right to enforce their claim, as Nintendo did once to squash a Pokemon doujinshi they disapproved of, but most adopt the policy of turning a blind eye to doujin-style works).
That being said, this is directly using one of their songs... however, I would imagine (I've not studied copyright law in the slightest, so this is me talking out of my metaphorical hat) that as long as you attribute the music to them and you're not making a profit of any sort off it (obviously not, since it's a project for school), no one is going to care, much less come after you.
I could give you a slightly more definitive answer, but I don't have my IOSYS CDs to check for any sort of Creative Commons clause at the moment.
Sounds realistic enough to me.
The other thing that tickles my mind is IOSYS's own status. Considering ZUN's work *is* doujin, and he does seem to approve of fandom (after all, he did name the biggest Touhou convention in Japan, even though he doesn't take part in its organization)... Well, stuff's probably complicated. In any case, if ZUN's music is CC, then IOSYS must be, by definition. For the same reason that I can't check for IOSYS, I can't exactly check for Touhou, too - language failure.
In any case, thanks a lot for your answer! I've got a few songs that inspire me, I'll probably start working on something soon.
Anyone have any idea what Utau Cirno-chan and Independance are, yet? Touhou Wiki is red-linked for both albums.
My initial thought for Utau Cirno-chan would be that it's a follow-up to Hyousetsu Kashuu with more Cirno-theme remixes and maybe another set of drama tracks (which I really liked on the first album, as opposed to the tracks on Bubbling Underground and Chotto Matten). However, they put "Cirno's Perfect Health and Fitness Course" as a bonus track on Koiichigo Musume+, so that seems to preclude that idea. So my current thought is that it's other IOSYS songs sung in a "Cirno" style (with miko singing in her "Cirno" voice, in other words). If that's the case (and there aren't any new songs on it), then it would make more sense to remove it from the list and just add to the "five karaoke/alternate remix albums and one re-release" tally.
Independance, assuming the misspelling has a significance (in which case I ought to throw a hyphen in there), sounds like it could be another album in the style of Bloom, JeuXinTerdiTs, and Faithful Star (especially since it's kind of hard to imagine them doing three full albums in one Comiket), with one of their more techno/dance-centric arrangers (rather than guitarists ARM and minami) taking the forefront.
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Utau Cirno-chan appears to be a karaoke album: "イオシスのイオシスによる歌って踊れるカラオケCD !! " reads the heading on IOSYS's page (the word right before CD is karaoke, for those who don't read Japanese). I'll remove it from the list and increment the alterate remix/karaoke count.
Independance isn't even listed on their site, and last time I checked the wiki it had been removed, so I'll take it off, period.
Does anybody know about IOSYS's license status? I'm currently studying animation and thinking of using one of their songs (Border of Death) for a project, but said project wouldn't have anything to do with Touhou outside of the song... I don't really know how to get data. Sadly, I don't speak Japanese =/
Any piece of advice would be greatly appreciated.
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