EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

I've had to deal with very similar issues myself. What I'm not 
clear on with you is whether when you're saying you're using 
quotes if you're using excerpts of recordings or whether you are 
reading the quotes out of a text. In other words, are you saying, "I 
have a dream," or are you using a tape of Martin Luther King 
saying, "I have a dream." It's a significant issue. See, you can, 
yourself, quote phrases and passages all day, as long as you 
give credit where credit is due (would be the liner notes in this 
case) and as long as you aren't taking another's work wholesale. 

For example, I wanted to incorporate a my reading of a poem by 
a particular poet into one of my songs. I was going to use the 
whole poem. As the poem is not public domain yet, I would have 
to get express permission to quote the poem in my recording. 
However, if I quoted a line from it, that would be considered 
allusion--it's fine. If I quoted two or three lines from it, that would 
be a quote--it would be fine as long as I credited the poet. The 
only problem came when I wanted to use the entire work. 

Using snippets of recordings is significanlty more complicated 
(as anyone who uses samples will tell you). Essentially, if what 
you are using comes from a public broadcast, you can use it. If it 
didn't, you have to obtain permission. We did a thing with Walter 
Cronkite reading the news and Ronald Regan speaking--right off 
the public airwaves. Was okay to incorporate into a song. We 
also used trailers from monster movies of the 50's. A bit more 
iffy. Even though these were commercials, it could be argued 
that we were using the intellectual property of whatever 
advertising company came up with the copy. 

If what you're doing is reading passages from a book of New 
Age quotes, you're absolutely fine with the anonymous or ancient 
ones. With the newer ones, you're fine as long as you stick to 
short quotes and attribute them in your liner notes.

--- In exs-users@y..., <HELP@M...> wrote:
> > In your opinion do you think the "Type B" quotes would be any 
more "legal"
> > to use? And do you think the "Type A" quotes are effected at 
all if the
> > original speaker is now deceased?
> 
> I depends purely on whether the quotes fall into public domain. 
Many, such
> as Martin Luther King's famous speech recordings, I think (or 
hope) are
> public domain. I've heard two songs released on fairly 
successful labels
> over the past 20 years that trigger samples of that speech at 
length.
> 
> I would say that a truly anonymous phrase is public domain. 
Although you
> don't always know if something is truly public domain or if 
someone stole it
> and called it anonymous or public domain. An ancient Chinese 
proverb or
> anonymous statement is cool as far as I am concerned.