What are the legal issues with sampling?

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When you sample a loop from an old 70's song (or any other song for that matter), what are the legal issues involved?

Is it usually a pretty easy process to get permission to use samples? I'd appreciate it if someone would answer a newbie question and tell me how this part of the industry works!

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oh my..

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Of course it's not legal to do so without permission (aka sample clearing, generally involves paying a fee, too).

Whether you care or not, is another dozen pages added to this thread.
I say, sample at whim, just make something new enough out of it so it's not so damn obvious.

sk

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Here's a starter's article on How to clear samples
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We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. :borg:

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bhubbs wrote:When you sample a loop from an old 70's song (or any other song for that matter), what are the legal issues involved?
In what country?

What do you *do* with the sampled loop?

Why do you call the 70's "old?"

In the USA, no copyrighted work has entered the public domain without the express consent of its creator, since World War Two.


In the USA, the "legal issues involved" are anything between "nothing happens" and "a judge has all of your assets seized and orders your future wages to be garnished in order to pay for the damages you caused."

Most of the time, it's the former.


One strategy to avoid litigation is to remain completely anonymous. Modern distribution schemes allow for this. If "They" cannot identify the origin of your work, "They" cannot sue you. That's assuming your goal is to be subversive, rather than just wanting to use material without permission...

One of my favorite things I've ever seen, was a collection of X-Ray film records that were smuggled out of the Soviet Union. (They couldn't record music and poetry legally, but they could get X-Ray film into and out of the country -- and it made a pretty good recording medium.)

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Yeah I didn't plan on not giving credit to the original artist. I just wanted to know how to go about it..

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james0tucson wrote: One of my favorite things I've ever seen, was a collection of X-Ray film records that were smuggled out of the Soviet Union. (They couldn't record music and poetry legally, but they could get X-Ray film into and out of the country -- and it made a pretty good recording medium.)
That's great! Any sources for further info?

sk

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