copywrite ruling
2005-01-07 by GAmoore@aol.com
The current issue of Keyboard magazine in the US is running an article about copyright that is a bit scary. Evidently there is a new legal ruling that any digital recording no matter how small is an infringement - but only for digital recordings. If the recordings are analog, then there are legal issues such as how recognizable the snip is, and how prominent in the song. It stems from a case where rappers sampled 2 seconds of a 1975 guitar riff. I have not heard the song but they say you can hardly even hear it at all. Get this .. the rappers got proper permission to use the sample, but then the song was used in a movie and the movie didn't have permission so they got hit with a lawsuit. As you know the record association RIAA that has been prosecuting 12 year olds is very strict on copyright infringement. Where did they stand on this issue? Well surprisingly, they filed a brief on behalf of the rappers against this suit. Looks like their compass is set on some sort of magnet too.