KaisrSolze@aol.com wrote:
quoted 1 line Which raises the question "how far is too far?" I think everybody on this>>Which raises the question "how far is too far?" I think everybody on this
list supports the concept of sampling to one extent or another. What if IDM
got to rewrite copyright law? To what extent should we respect intellectual
property? Is there some arbitrary acceptable sample length? Does the sample
need to be messed up/rearranged to be used? What compensation should artists
get for the use of their work as samples? When can their work be used with
or without their permission? When does something become public domain? And
I don't want what the law is now--what do you think the law should be?<<
"Steven T Lammers" <lammers1@pilot.msu.edu> wrote:
quoted 1 line ..I believe the legal cutoff is 11 notes.<<>>..I believe the legal cutoff is 11 notes.<<
And I believe that your belief is erroneous, a sort of music-law urban
legend, at least in the United States. Still, it's always possible that
eleven notes might be a fairly good rule-of-thumb for what will pass by
unnoticed by record companies and other copyright holders, I dunno. (One
music-rights guy I ran into in LA sported a button which said "Use one note,
go to jail." It would certainly be interesting to see how he planned to
decide who owned which note.)
My understanding is that this whole area of law is fairly unsettled and
awaiting a good test case. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your
point of view) a de facto system of licensing is evolving, provoked by the
occasional lawsuit which is settled out of court. This keeps the wheels of
musical commerce turning (perhaps "grinding" might be more appropriate) but
prevents the courts from dealing with the whole issue - which they'd probably
prefer. Here in the US, the Supreme Court has fairly clearly implied that
they'd like Congress to settle things by changing the copyright law and
instituting a mandatory licensing scheme for sampling and other quasi-legal
practices.
A good source of (admittedly biased) information is the book _Fair
Use_ by Negativland about their run-in with U2 after they released a single
which used a sample of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." (They
lost that battle, but have continued to propagandize in an attempt to win the
war, at least on the public relations front.)
Ed Fitzgerald