interesting music copyright pickle

So, Jonathan Coulton's version of Baby Got Back has been copied in Glee and apparently he doesn't have a leg to stand on, because the copyright only goes so far as the actual sound recording of his version, and not the arrangement changes he may have made.

Interesting little legal loophole for someone to find themselves in, don't you think?

Yeah, this kind of stuff happens a lot but usually not to notable people.

This kind of thing probably happens quite a lot. For example:

  Quote

As Liam Howlett, main man behind U.K. techno outfit The Prodigy, explains, you should never take without asking.

"I always ask permission before sampling other people's records," Howlett told me during a recent discussion about his new remix album, Prodigy Presents: The Dirtchamber Vol. One. "You have to cover your ass."

Sadly, that's just what a London electro group called The Jedi Knights forgot to do when they went after Howlett for nicking a sample from their record and using it on Prodigy's 1997 album, The Fat Of The Land.

"There's a track called Traumatized where I lifted a track off The Jedi Knights," Howlett explained. "I recognized the loop from this old '70s group, The Incredible Bongo Band, so I took it. In no time The Jedi Knights were on the phone: 'You sampled our beats.' 'No I didn't, you've lifted this from somewhere else.'

"I searched for about a month. I had to find out because they wanted to sue us. I found a copy of The Incredible Bongo Band's album, and there it was -- the loop, lifted straight off a track called Bongolia.

"So, my man from our label, XL, went over to America, bought the rights for the track, and we told The Jedi Knights we were going to sue them! Y'know, just to freak them out.

"The Jedi Knights later caught into trouble with George Lucas over their name. I felt a bit sorry for them.

"It shows you've got to be careful."

This is one of the reasons why I never use samples anymore. That and life's too short to not make original things, or as close as you can get to that, anyway.

dudes upset about them ripping off his cover version?

best first world problem in a while

fucking folk musicians

and maybe the same recording of a duck quack... is this a joke article

I used to sample anything and everything but learned about how much trouble I could get into for doing it. Now, I just sample public domain stuff for goofy voice samples. I don't use whole beats or sections, though, so the sources I've sampled are usually quite hidden.

I sample everything and its mama and use them every way I goddamn feel like ;) . You have to worry about this stuff when you're actually selling (a lot of) records. This is nothing an Ekt producer is going to have to worry about.

At the moment I'm working in a hiphop project where I'm throwing up ideas, mostly cutup samples. Although I process and flip them, fans and originator(s) could still recognize the source. We have a -band interpret the beats and will replace the tracks with live recordings. How this will affect copyright I'm not sure.

This is PR gold for Coulton...

lol samples. what a load of shit.

This is actually a pretty perfect example of how copyright is failing to fulfill it's original intention, to protect ideas from being claimed by someone else. I mean it is a cover version, but it is an adaptation of an original idea to create a new idea which does stand out as being pretty original in its own right. Yet here the new original idea is not allowed to be protected and now is being claimed as an original idea from an arguably much more powerful source which hasn't bothered to build on any ideas at all. Of course we all know that the only use for copyright these days is to make more money and the only people that are able to use it don't give a shit about protecting cultural developments, that's kinda stating the obvious (as is most of this post actually...)

dude's arrangement sounds like leavin on a jet plane

How does someone like Madlib get away with it? There are some samples I hear and I think, "he couldn't have cleared all of this."

The Glee version even uses the line "Johnny C's in trouble" instead of "Mix-a-Lot's in trouble"...

LOL, I'd never heard of Jonathan Coulton before, but if he's a folk musician I'm a fucking rapper

  On 1/20/2013 at 4:06 PM, Candiru said:

How does someone like Madlib get away with it? There are some samples I hear and I think, "he couldn't have cleared all of this."

Good question, he's hardly alone but I think that comes done to a few things:

- How he uses it (a key loop for a 3 minute song, or a 10-15 sec "skit" or interlude"

- How many records he sold and how (Joyrex pointed to how RDJ's Caustic Window compilation doesn't have the unauthorized Popcorn remix but the 12" that was pressed in 1,000 copies, tops, was released without issue)

- He flips it well enough that only crate-diggers/watmmers would notice - I think Daft Punk has gotten away/denied pitch-shifted bars they sampled but didn't clear.

- He samples stuff so old that the copyright might be weak.

- He mixes it with a plethora of out-of-print or hopelessly obscure samples

The most frustrating thing about samples from say, 70s or older, is that the record labels and publishers own the material and sue - most songwriters and musicians never get paid even for cleared and licensed usage of their songs! For instance, George Clinton does not make any money off the songs he wrote and performed on but some publishing company that bought the songs from his original label does (he's currently pursuing legal action to get that sorted). That's the other huge issue with the sampling controversy. Every drummer on any major breakbeat hasn't earned a thing either, a there were literally people and companies getting paid for sampling the original 7" record of "Amen Brother" and releasing it in breakbeat packs.

madlib gets away with it because he works with blue note and all those lozer ass record companies and they agree not to give him shit because his music is soft

jedi knights sound like bozos

From what I remember Madlib tries to clear any samples that are worth clearing, but I imagine there's plenty of records he's sampled where even trying to get hold of the owner of the record is near impossible (I might be wrong but I'm sure there's been notifications sent from Madlib / Stones Throw to sample spotter blogs to take down the info so they don't find out). There was an interview when The Further Adventures Of Lord Quas came out where he was discussing problems with clearing the Roy Ayers sample in this track for the album (which were sent out in the promos, which I'd love to find a copy!), so Stones Throw released it as a b-side for the limited 7" of "Bully's H!t" under the false sublabel 'Lord Inamel's Wax' which they registered in France to avoid being traced:

  On 1/20/2013 at 9:16 PM, vamos scorcho said:

madlib gets away with it because he works with blue note and all those lozer ass record companies and they agree not to give him shit because his music is soft

 

jedi knights sound like bozos

The Jedi Knights are Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard aka Global Communication.