Tuesday a federal court of appeals in Nashville ruled that sampling of two seconds from a sound recording constituted copyright infringement. The infringement was of the sound recording copyright--not the underlying musical composition.
According to an article in Billboard.biz yesterday (September 8, 2004) "a mere two-second unauthorized sample of a guitar solo from Funkadelic's 'Get Off Your Ass and Jam' is enough to constitute copyright infringement of the recording." Prior to this ruling it was widely accepted that in order for a use of a copyrighted work to be considered an infringement, the taking had to be "substantial". However, according to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the case of Sound Recording copyrights, any taking, no matter how brief, is sufficient to constitute an infringement assuming all other elements of the case have been proven.
Copyright © 2004 C. Stephen Weaver
The violation was of the mp3 copyright--not the actual musical structure.
Posted by: florida home insurance | August 07, 2012 at 12:20 PM
Yes Florida. That is what I said. There are only 2 copyrights in most recordings - the underlying performance on the record - or the mp3 which is the "Sound Recording" copyright and the copyright in the underlying musical composition.
Steve
Posted by: Steve Weaver | August 07, 2012 at 02:04 PM