News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The shady one-man corporation that's destroying hip-hop (... by enneff on Sunday February 09, 2014 @06:49PM (#7208061)
Those are really egregious examples of sampling, where the sample is almost the entire song. I agree that in those cases the original artist should be compensated, just as the original composer must be compensated when you do a cover.

But most sample-based music is not like this. Other examples raised in this discussion thread, such as the Beastie Boys' album "Paul's Boutique", use samples as a form of sonic collage. Works like these should be regarded by the law as original works, just as a visual collage would be.

Should The Winston's be compensated for the near-ubiquitous "Amen Break'? Or James Brown for "Funky Drummer"? Or the countless others that provided the elements (samples) upon whole genres of modern music are founded? I argue that it is in society's interest to answer "no", simply because the works would not exist were there legal barriers hindering its creation.

There are no comments on this comment yet.