The Mellotron Group

The drum beat and timbres from "When The Levee Breaks" (LZ-IV) Has been sampled and used a few times.  Maybe hundreds of times.  The magic of that drum sound is the recording method and the space it was recorded in.

  
--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dickson <mike.dickson@...> wrote:
>
> On 27/02/2011 01:59, John Hammaren wrote:
> 
> 
> > I guess this topic gets my ire up, since although I have the utmost 
> > respect for the work and creations of others, the current state of 
> > intellectual property law is a freaking mess IMHO.
> >
> 
> As ever, the law is driven by those who can afford to drive it.
> 
> > I’m not a lawyer, but it hardly takes one to realize this.
> >
> 
> I'm not a lawyer either, but I do have a Masters in Law and part of that 
> took in the subject of copyright, designs and patents.
> 
> > Throw in the current software patent nonsense and we have a bigger mess.
> >
> 
> Interesting side note: you cannot patent software. It's specifically 
> excluded from patent. You can copyright it, but since /ideas /cannot be 
> copyrighted then it means algorithms cannot be copyrighted either. If 
> you had the means you could make a functional close of (say) Microsoft 
> Windows and Bill Gates could not touch you for it. Why? The source code 
> would be different. The code is your work of 'art' and hence falls into 
> the territory of copyright, not patent. Unless you have copied large 
> parts of it /verbatim/ then you will be okay.
> 
> > Pretty soon we will be able to copyright the timbre of our God given 
> > voices the way things are going.
> >
> 
> You can. One firm (in 1987) tried to copyright a single /letter /which 
> was associated with their name. IBM tried the same thing with their 
> abbreviated name and also failed. (Narrowly) This veers into the 
> territory of trade marks, where a visual identifier is associated with 
> name or product. This 
> <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/IBM_logo.svg/800px-IBM_logo.svg.png> 
> says 'IBM' whereas the same thing in copperplate script does not. If a 
> visual aid works then why not an audio one? If someone has a very 
> distinctive voice (I'm thinking in terms of scale like Diamanda Galas 
> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAFbYN_8e7g> here) then why not? I'm not 
> saying it's right or wrong, but I am saying that it's evidently possible.
> 
> My favourite ever sampling story has to be the one about David Bowie's 
> track 'Lets Dance'. It was very popular back in the day and that was 
> oput down to the drum timbres. The kick drum and snare from the opening 
> sequence were sampled /to shreds/ and were featured on dozens of other 
> contemporary tunes, thanks to the Fairlight CMI. Bowie;s production team 
> made litigious noises, but it all came to nothing.
> 
> Why? Because both were sampled from 'Moby Dick'.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Mike Dickson, Edinburgh
> 
> Free Music Project: http://www.mikedickson.org.uk/
> Or http://www.last.fm/music/Mike+Dickson
> Or http://soundcloud.com/mikedickson
> Or http://www.planetmellotron.com/revd4.htm#mikedickson
> Or http://www.myspace.com/mellotronworks
>