Document Type
Article
Abstract
“Once music is recorded on tape, it’s just pieces of ferrous oxide on plastic, and can therefore be chopped about, switched around, put together in different orders, stretched, compressed, whatever,” explained Brian Eno, famous composer credited as the pioneer of ambient music, in a 1977 interview as he discussed the revolutionary benefits of magnetic tape audio recording. The abilities the Eno described are the first means of music sampling.
Music sampling is a technique that has been described as a technological outgrowth of musical eclecticism, a methodology that incorporates compositional concepts of borrowing, quotation, commentary, and collage. Despite providing for new creative works to the public domain, sampling is illegal: it is considered to be an infringement of the exclusive right to prepare derivative works of both the sound recording and musical composition copyrights if the use is not determined to be de minimis or transformative fair use. Musicians who have created new works from sampling famous recordings have endured litigation and paid hefty damages, including statutory damages. Others have given up all of their songwriting royalties to the original song’s copyright holders. Because sampling is illegal, sample artists are discouraged from creating new works, which in turn deprives the music industry of revenue and the public domain of new expressive works. To solve these problems, this Article argues that sampling should be permitted, and a compulsory license be imposed upon the copyright holders. This Article also introduces a streamlined system employing a new organization to administer the license and enforce the copyrights for the copyright holders, achieving a balance of interests.
Recommended Citation
Maxwell Christiansen,
Fixing the Sample Music Industry: A Proposal For a Sample Compulsory License,
22 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(2017).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol22/iss1/2