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[Indigo Virus]

As I was sat on the throne I was flicking through a future mag (as you do) and came across some interesting information on sample copyrights so I thought id type it up for the the people that diddnt know and for the ignorant people who will say(already knew that)

Sample CDs

When you buy a sample cd your usually buying the right to use those samples in your own music(though not to redistribute those samples) before you release or send out a track check  the sample cd to see if you need to put a credit to them


Sampling Films And TV

If you thought music copyright was complicated,consider that to sample a bit of dialogue from a film or TV show you have to take into account the scriptwriters copyright(he wrote the words being spoken),any music copyright(if theres background music),the recording copyright(of the audio/visual recording) and the original authors copyright(if the film/tv adaptation is based on an original book,and no you just cant get a mate to re-say the words......the words belong to the scriptwriter/author and youll need his permission to re-say the words

Getting Permission

A lot of musicions dont realise how easy it is to get permission  to use a sample.the main thing you need to remember is that you need permission from the music(and lyrics) copyright owner (usually the artist or record company) aswell as the recording copyright owner(usually the record company) the record company details withh be on the cd case/vynyl sleeve . alternatively you can do an online search,such as sampleclearance.com ,who will track down a sample and gain permission on your behalf,And getting the permsission doesnt always mean you have to pay.

Samples have a copyright time of 70years meaning any music older than 70 years can be sampled without permission

 

[VAPOUR]

all good points but unless your tune blows up and hits the top 40 there is absolotely no need to even bother with sample clearance as a copyright holder will not waste thier time taking you to court to sue you for copyright infringement for a track that has barely sold enough copies to break even as if it did even get to court a judge would just say fuck off this has made no profit so thus there is no actuall money profit to which the copyright owner can lay claim to

from the times ive heard of anyone getting even contacted by a copyright owner it was just a cease and desist asking for no more copys of a track to be sold

only thing i would say to step on the safe side with is using ragga lyrics in tunes there was a well documented incident in the mid 90's where a group of ragga vocalists came over to england and spent a week visting various dnb producers to "collect" thier share of the royaltys for samples used that they sung on tunes that were released without there knowledge apparently they got a nice payout from a few peeps untill they vistied one producer who promtly told em to fuck off with the help of his dog