Guitar - copyrighted?

The folk songs are public domain. Itsy Bitsy Spider and so on.

Edit: Though the performance recordings themselves would not be public domain-- they'd be the property of EA most likely. (As is every other asset in TS4-- whenever we make Sims stuff we are using copyrighted assets.)

The few seconds sample thing is an urban legend, unfortunately.
Any audio of anyone playing is "real music"-- it may not be a published composition, but it is recorded audio of someone playing (or someone having programmed a computer to play) and someone owns the master recording. If it isn't a published composition then probably they made it in a studio specifically for the game, and the copyright owner is just EA.
Lots of people use copyrighted music in Youtube videos without permission. Usually what happens is either the videos don't get very many views and no one notices, or the Youtube algorithm catches it and slaps an ad on the beginning of the video to collect money for the copyright holder. This depends on how the copyright holder has it set up. They can also set it up to automatically block your video instead, but most don't.
But if you are making something that might get a lot of views, you might want to be a little more careful. It sounds like you are thinking this way else you would not have asked the question :)
Copyright laws differ by country too. This is a good explanation of how it works in the US-- since EA and Youtube are both in the US this might be a good starting place
https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/music-rights/clear-samples-to-copyrighted-music/

Think about the famous case of Vanilla Ice borrowing the bass line from “Under Pressure.” The sample is probably only 3 seconds long, but that didn’t stop Queen and David Bowie (or their labels/publishers) from swooping in to collect the cash.

So no, you can’t legally sample something (no matter what the length) unless you’ve cleared that sample with both the owner of the song and the owner of the sound recording.

Edit: EA absolutely positively would have had to pay to license the rights to every song in the game that wasn't written in-house by EA, like the Simlish versions of songs by other artists that appear on the in-game radio stations.

"Simmerville;c-18204876" wrote:

"mightysprite;c-18204836" wrote:
The folk songs are public domain. Itsy Bitsy Spider and so on.

Edit: Though the performance recordings themselves would not be public domain-- they'd be the property of EA most likely. (As is every other asset in TS4-- whenever we make Sims stuff we are using copyrighted assets.)

Thanks. I know EA is positive to their ts4 property being used in videos etc, most likely as long as it is not commercial. But yes, that would count for only what EA has the copyright too. I 've used only the 3 folk songs this far, and as they are singing only I think they are safe, too. But it's harder to decide regarding the plunking/strumming on guitar, it is hard for me to tell whether it includes real music or not. Hm... isn't there a rule about using a few seconds (as in sampling) will normally be okay? Perhaps EA kept that usage within those rules also to save themselves from copyright issues.

There is an app or something. I had my visiting son listen to one of the songs that seemed familiar in many ways, hoping he could help me figure out just what song it was. He pulled out his phone held it to the computer speakers and came back that it wasn't a real song. Yeah, somebody wrote it for EA, but since you're using it along with the Sims, you may be fine. Otherwise, I would check in with EA and see if what you're wanting to do is copacetic with them.

"mightysprite;c-18204836" wrote:
The folk songs are public domain. Itsy Bitsy Spider and so on.

Edit: Though the performance recordings themselves would not be public domain-- they'd be the property of EA most likely. (As is every other asset in TS4-- whenever we make Sims stuff we are using copyrighted assets.)

Thanks. I know EA is positive to their ts4 property being used in videos etc, most likely as long as it is not commercial. But yes, that would count for only what EA has the copyright too. I 've used only the 3 folk songs this far, and as they are singing only I think they are safe, too. But it's harder to decide regarding the plunking/strumming on guitar, it is hard for me to tell whether it includes real music or not. Hm... isn't there a rule about using a few seconds (as in sampling) will normally be okay? Perhaps EA kept that usage within those rules also to save themselves from copyright issues.