As A Tribute To MCA: Can We Stop The War On Sampling?
from the mix-it-up dept
Update: Apparently not. The Beastie Boys have just been sued for copyright infringement over samples on Licensed to Ill and Paul's Boutique (both albums over 20 years old).Late last week there was the very unfortunate news of the passing of Adam Yauch, better known as MCA, one-third of the Beastie Boys. I know a few people who have known him, and people only have had the most amazingly nice things to say about the guy. Like plenty of other folks, I've spent the past few days firing up old Beastie Boys albums, and (in particular) their classic Paul's Boutique -- which Nancy Sims rightfully pointed out: "it's a sad copyright lawyer that doesn't at least own" that particular album. And that's because not only is it one of the all-time great albums, it's also well known for including hundreds of samples.
Thankfully, for the world, Paul's Boutique (and a few other classic hip hop albums) got in under the wire, before the industry started throwing around lawsuits against each other for sampling. An analysis last year of what it would cost to clear all the samples if the Beastie Boys decided to put together such an album today, when not clearing every song gets you sued. It turns out that based on how much labels seem to charge for samples, and the massive number of samples on the album, Capitol Records would have lost $20 million on the album, despite it selling 2.5 million copies.
In other words, you could not reasonably clear all the samples. There is no reasonable price.
As a result of that, of course, we can't have the next Paul's Boutique, unless it's done underground and whoever makes it gets lucky that no one spots the work and gets angry. What an incredible step backwards.
In response to all of this, the EFF has pointed out that it would be a fitting tribute to MCA to fix this problem by creating a way to make sure that samples could be used in songs:
We think it’s pretty clear that the samples the Beastie Boys used in Paul’s Boutique and that Girl Talk now uses in his records are classic examples of fair use. Unfortunately, many artists these days are nonetheless under pressure to pay licensing fees for similar uses. Despite the fact that most cases rightfully find that sampling is not copyright infringement, the mere threat of a lawsuit (and the specter of statutory damages) is enough to intimidate musicians and labels alike. This cottage market of sample licensing stands in the way of creating the next Paul's Boutique – a sad comment on MCA's legacy.Forget the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, where's the Adam Yauch Right To Sample Act? We shouldn't even have to fight for our right to sample. But... such is the unfortunate state of the law.
The time to come up with a new, effective licensing scheme is long overdue. Young artists should be encouraged to remix and create in all the exciting new ways that technology allows, not sidelined by expensive licensing battles. Solving this problem would go a long way in that direction and be a fitting tribute to MCA, the Beastie Boys, and the fantastic remix culture they helped foster.
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Filed Under: beastie boys, eff, girl talk, licensing, mca, paul's boutique, sampling
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They were talking about how it changed the record industry, and made hiphop and other things more mainstream.
I think what made this become this giant boil on the ass for the industry... was the industry. Never willing to not try to make a few extra bucks, they went to court and demanded higher and higher awards for people "stealing" samples. So label A was saying they should get X, then label B was demanding X+ for samples they controlled. They had to have people pouring over the new tracks trying to make sure nothing was sampled, because the industry made the price to prohibitive to be done. They created this entire subset of their industry trying to squeeze hundreds of dollars from as little as 5 notes sometimes.
One example that sticks out was there was a group who went so far as to press their own vinyl to sample themselves performing the music bit they wanted, because it was cheaper to get the cover rights than the sample rights.
The labels have painted themselves into a corner this way, they are committed to the idea that a sample is worth X no matter what. They can't backdown now, or more correctly will not be the first one to do it. So what if it is a way to introduce a forgotten artist of the past to a new generation.
The online idea of attrition would have served sampling so much better than extracting fees. But sometimes they can not see that you have to change and adapt rather than try and force the world into the same old system.
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And here's my point - when an industry is focused solely on maximizing profits, the advice it listens to tends to be extremist; institutional paranoia is almost inevitable. What do music labels actually do? Essentially, produce and package other peoples' creativity. The only thing they are capable of actually creating themselves are rottweiler lawyers.
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FTFY.
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But yes Attribution would have been a more amazing answer to the requirements of sampling. While some hiphop tracks had hundreds of samples and it would have been daunting to list them all, I think they would have been more willing to keep better records of them and give the credit more than trying to fight off the lawyers trying to get $300 per sample.
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http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/roll-call-musicians-for-an-ethical-internet/
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here, let google's chief economist Hal A Varian educate you, as he did John Perry Barlow...
http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/effs-john-perry-barlow-is-wrong/
yikes! your own people don't agree with you, even the ones running the largest most successful companies... uh oh...
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I love the way that your "everybody who disagrees with me is paid by Google!" paranoid delusion even extends to other ACs...
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http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/effs-john-perry-barlow-is-wrong/
I was curious about this as it did not mesh with what I remember from Information Rules. So I pulled out my copy of the book and found (not surprisingly) that you pulled the quotes totally out of context. Each paragraph comes from a different part of the book, and you leave out a TON of other information between those comments.
I'd do a takedown, but why bother.
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FFS, make an account, or put a name to your snowflake, so you can show that you actually have some skin in this debate. Otherwise people will continue to treat you like the stuck-up douchenozzle idiot you're portraying yourself as.
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Who says the Beastie Boys are in the clear?
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Re: Who says the Beastie Boys are in the clear?
I certainly hope that there's no risk of legal action here. Paul's Boutique, along with similar work of a number of their peers at the time, is a great example of how sampling can in itself be an art form.
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Re: Re: Who says the Beastie Boys are in the clear?
Hmmm... I meant to type prosecution... Freudian slip I suppose!
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I thought all samples were plagiarism is the whole point of it, to copy a piece and paste it elsewhere.
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Re: Re: Re: Who says the Beastie Boys are in the clear?
Plagiarism involves reusing someone's work and claiming that you did it.
That is something that is much more serious than "copyright infringement", I think.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Who says the Beastie Boys are in the clear?
Ok, that sentence is ambiguous.
"It" was referring to the work, no the act of committing plagiarism.
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Yep, very ambiguous . *runs*
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I base this on the history of the Boston stran... I mean VCR.
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Customized Google search for Open Music Search.
https://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=002157614283018392829%3Aktlp_kp7blc&hl=en
List of 21 places to find free samples.
http://www.squidoo.com/freesounds/2495939
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Band-Aids
Yeah, because licensing schemes work *so* well, right? The only real solution is to make Fair Use more than just a defense against copyright infringement claims-- to codify several actions which are always Fair Use, and to have sampling fall under it.
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It's not even a very good straw man. (That's not to say it wouldn't be used, of course.
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On the other hand, placing high penalties (including damages) on a false claim would mean that the MPAA would have to be sure they had a solid case. This would empower Fair Use as a detterrent to litigation instead of merely a defense against it.
Small changes in the right spot can have substantial effects. Sweeping changes usually have detrimental effects and should only be considered when it can be shown that the fundamental theory behind the model is broken.
The problem exists at the implementation level, not the design level. Address it there.
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Some of these automatic damages would go to the defendent for time costs, where as others could be used to provide for a defense for those who can demonstrate the inability to hire their own lawyer.
Again, these issues you bring up here can be addressed at the implementation level.
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Crushed
Sadness fills my heart.
R.I.P. MCA. You will be missed, but never forgotten.
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"for our right" (NA-NA-NA)
TO SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMPLE!
...
Clearing all these songs is such an aggravation
(na na na, na na-na na)
Their lawyer through away our request application
(na na na, na na-na na)
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Here's an idea: Compulsory License for sampling
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