Break, solo, one hour of banging on only the snare with different rhythms... most anything could be considered a composition and most certainly is covered by the usual laws. So no, you can definitely not get away with sampling breaks and stuff (well you can, but it's still not legal).alan alda jnr. wrote:i don't tend to use breaks, but i was under the impression that under copyright law (US at least), you can't claim ownership of a drum solo. As soon as you put anything else in there, it's legally a musical composition, but not until then. If you hear a nice break, and you play it out exactly on your own kit, AFAIK, that's fine. I did think it was the same for a sample of solo drums, but now I'm not so sure. Anybody know for sure? But if you're cutting it up beyond recognition, first of all who's going to be able to tell, and even then, who would care?
multisampled drums & processing - funk/jazz styles?
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Programentalist Programentalist https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=8597
- KVRian
- 657 posts since 21 Aug, 2003
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- KVRAF
- 13444 posts since 14 Nov, 2000 from Hannover / Germany
I'm afraid you're not correct here.Programentalist wrote: Break, solo, one hour of banging on only the snare with different rhythms... most anything could be considered a composition and most certainly is covered by the usual laws. So no, you can definitely not get away with sampling breaks and stuff (well you can, but it's still not legal).
In case of sampled breaks, it's the production that is covered by copyright, NOT the composition.
There's a few exceptions, such as some written down percussive works or such, basically happening in the classical genre.
Common sense is that only melodies and lyrics are considered being a composition, probably with some harmonies coming along with them (but a clever harmonic progression will never be considered a composition on its own).
So, when sampling breaks, you may get yourself onto illegal (or legally questionable) territory, but it's the production copyright that is infringed, rather than the composition.
Whether someone will care or not depends on a few things:
- Do you mention where the breaks are coming from?
- Are they recognizeable?
- Are you earning a shitload of money from it?
Sampling breaks is a very common thing and it's not all that often that people are sued because of doing so. Seems to me that very often the original author might even be happy to see his/her work kinda "bumped".
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.
Those who can do maths and those who can't.
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- KVRAF
- 4749 posts since 15 Jul, 2001 from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, U.K
ahh well, thats me fu%^ed then 
Programentalist wrote:[So no, you can definitely not get away with sampling breaks and stuff (well you can, but it's still not legal).
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- KVRian
- 1278 posts since 24 May, 2004
Nice info, just a few things to add:Sascha Franck wrote:Whether someone will care or not depends on a few things:
- Do you mention where the breaks are coming from?
- Are they recognizeable?
- Are you earning a shitload of money from it?
- Does the original author (or his label) still exist? If not, who has inherited the right of reproduction?
- Is he/she likely to be still around and care about his music being sampled?
- Is/was the original author well-known so his listeners could report your 'infriction' to him?