>> And the Rolling Stones thing... where the Vervepipe has a hit
>> song Bittersweet Symphony which used a string sample from
>> a Stones song, and the Stones sued them, and these guys did not
>> get a nickel from their only hit song. Is Mick Jagger so hard
>> up for money?
> In other words stealing is OK as long as you are stealing from
> someone with more money than you?
Of course not. Regarding the Stones lawsuit, I would think that a reasonable settlement would have been at most half, or more fairly maybe 1/10 of all profits. The Vervepipe's were just too lazy or inexperienced to re-record the string riff. But it was their creativity to write the song and the vocal performance and so forth, that made it a hit song - which is immediately clear because the Stones never released the 5 second riff as a song themselves. I think this is a bit of a technicality to take all of their money, and I think its mean spirited for one of the richest bands in the world to take every penny from some guys who have thier first (and last) success - just from a human point of view.
By the way, this same thing makes me nervous about using Sample CDs. You have to read the fine print on all of them because I saw one where it says quite clearly that if you don't credit the drum loop creator on your materials you will be held legally liable.
Ubik - you have a great spirit.