this is not true. A sound recording of a drum beat is subject to copyright
law. Any released form of intellectual property has an implied copyright. If
you can recognize the sample, you can be sued. It does not matter if it is a
beat, a horn stab, or a fugue. There is a difference between publishing and
audio recordings.
The law that you are thinking of is for publishing. As far as publishing
credit goes(the notes underneath the sounds,) lyrics, the vocal line, and
the main melody are subject to copyright. So if you took somebody's vocal
melody and backing harmony/lead melody, recorded it yourself, and released
it without crediting the writer you could be sued. If you took somebody's
beat, recorded it yourself and then put it on your record, you can get away
with it.
The reason being is that copyright law was written by rich white people who
generally considered music to be all about melody, and rhythm/groove was
incidental. Therefore, the melody is protected by law, and rhythm is not. If
the laws had been written by somebody from the african musical tradition it
would probably be exactly the opposite.
The real world example would be Sony vs UR. UR sued sony because they
violated their publishing rights. They put a re-recorded version of Jaguar
out without giving songwriting credit, and that is what got them sued. If
Sony would have just given writing credit, UR would not have had a leg to
stand on in court.
to sum it up: all sound recordings have an implied copyright. You can be
sued for using any copyrighted sound recording without permission. You can
cover a song without permisson if you give writing credit.
take care,
Mike
np : Ian Mabon's rock jam on 365live
From: atomly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [313] question on sampling
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 18:21:44 -0500
["Max Duley (ARCart)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]
> James Brown has a staff scouring for samples of his work, and he's
> made much more from being sampled than he did from his own releases
> (or so I hear).
Well, the majority of the samples from him are drums, which aren't
subject to the same rules- they're generally free for the taking.
--
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