Court rules that all musical samples must be paid for

Feslmogh used our news submit to tell us about a report he spotted over at MTV. It seems that the legal minds of the United States feel that digital sampling is just as wrong as pirating the whole tune. Makes sense logically, especially when you don't have to worry how big a sample is too big.

Three judges sitting on the panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said the same federal laws currently in place to halt music piracy will also apply to digital sampling, and explained, "If you cannot pirate the whole sound recording, can you "lift" or "sample" something less than the whole? Our answer to that question is in the negative.""Get a license or do not sample," the court said Tuesday. "We do not see this as stifling creativity in any significant way."

The case that bought this issue to a head was the 1990 N.W.A song "100 Miles and Runnin'." The track samples a three-note guitar riff from a 1975 Funkadelic track, "Get Off Your Ass and Jam." The sample was just 2 seconds long! This is an example of where do you draw the line, in this case the justice system probably did the smartest thing, leaving the legal system free to wrestle with other important issues.

Source: MTV