let me preface by saying these are the types of discussions this list
should have FAR more often...
On Fri, 11 Jul 1997 14:05:46 -0700 (PDT) scooper@best.com (Sean Cooper)
writes:
quoted 18 lines this is kind of an interesting debate if you step away from it. and i
>this is kind of an interesting debate if you step away from it. and i
>don't
>want to start a majors vs. indies war here, but i am interested to
>look at
>this conflict AS AN INDIVIDUAL CASE (please keep this in mind as you
>read
>the below; we're not writing constitutional law here and any fear of
>setting an unhealthy legal precedent is not necessarily
>important...)...its
>very easy to look at what the jedis did with the bongo band sample and
>what
>the prodigy in turn did with the "bongolia" sample only from the
>standpoint
>of international copyright law, in which case one would be forced to
>rule
>that both groups are equally culpable for having profited from
>copyrighted
>material without clearance and/or compensation.quoted 10 lines history
>history
>of sample-based music and the fact that some of the most significant
>advances in western musical culture of the last twenty years have in
>many
>respects been made possible by unfettered copyright infringement
>(early
>hip-hop, house, and techno; the circulation of mixtapes; "public
>performance" via pirate radio, raves, clubs; etc.), i don't think
>limiting
>ones scope to that degree of simplicity makes a whole lot of sense.quoted 7 lines is there another way to look at it? i think so. for one, one of the
>is there another way to look at it? i think so. for one, one of the
>key
>unwritten ethical subtexts of developing and/or
>experimental/underground
>cultures is that its ok to borrow, quote, or sample one another as
>long as
>no one's profiting any more from it than anyone else.quoted 3 lines degree of economic equanimity is compromised, that's when you start
>degree of economic equanimity is compromised, that's when you start
>seeing
>lawsuits appear.quoted 30 lines criteria for judgement may vary from example to example; for instance,
>criteria for judgement may vary from example to example; for instance,
>american jazz artists in the '40s and '50s often used an artist's
>credibility and integrity--often indicated by chemical dependence or
>economic destitution, but not always--as a barometer for acceptability
>for
>playing/recording/quoting from their tunes.) a recent example brings,
>i
>think, many of the issues involved here into relief: robin rimbaud,
>aka
>scanner, filed a lawsuit a while back holding up release of bjork's
>_post_
>because it used a sample for which he was neither credited nor paid.
>now,
>scanner has been sampled by other electronic musicians in the past
>(and he
>has sampled others); only when a sample of his music appeared on a
>major
>release did he take legal action. what i think this (and other
>examples
>like it) suggests is that what is being protested by such lawsuits is
>not
>necessarily the uncompensated or even uncredited use of copyrighted
>material (if that were the case he would sue anyone and everyone who
>sampled him), but the breaking of that unspoken agreement that, all
>else
>being equal, the free circulation of influence and ideas (extending,
>obviously, to outright sampling, since that is one way influence in
>sample-based music is registered) is beneficial to the vitality and
>development of the art.
>quoted 19 lines so what's different in this case? none of the above should be read to
>so what's different in this case? none of the above should be read to
>suggest that the jedis, as independent artists, are thereby good, and
>the
>prodigy, as major label artists, are thereby bad (for example, i
>personally
>think they're both lame). the point, rather, (at least as it appears
>to me)
>is that the prodigy have courted pop stardom in ways that, at least as
>far
>as the jedis are concerned (you may disagree) nullify the unspoken
>contract
>of equanimity described above; that by choosing to play by a different
>set
>of rules (those delineated by large marketing budgets, tons of press,
>music
>videos, heaps of cocain, profit margins for pencil pushers, etc.) the
>prodigy's access to the previous set of rules will, at least as far as
>its
>within the jedis ability, not be allowed..quoted 12 lines proposed a merit-based royalty payment system for sample usage (i.e.
>proposed a merit-based royalty payment system for sample usage (i.e.
>one
>based on unit sales rather than a set fee or royalty scale), and i
>think
>his proposal speaks directly to this dynamic.
>
>i'd be interested to hear some opinions of artists on this issue,
>particularly ones who have been sampled...(ken downie? how 'bout that
>archive sample? any thoughts?)
>
>sc
>quoted 1 line
>