Did The Library Of Congress Just Honor Copyright Infringement?

from the questions,-questions,-questions dept

Every year, the Library of Congress selects 25 recordings (music, spoken word, etc.) to honor by naming them to the National Recording Registry. Among the works so honored this year is De La Soul's classic first album, 3 Feet High and Rising. Now, this decision to honor that work set off some shocked responses from folks like Copycense, who quickly pointed out that there's tremendous irony here. That album more or less changed the entire concept of sample-based hip hop music, because its success made the band a legal target. While the album still is out there, it's effectively illegal, because the massive number of samples involved in the album can't be cleared, and thus the band has had to use workarounds to rerelease any of the tracks.

Copycense also points out how utterly ridiculous this is. The Library of Congress is the home of the Copyright Office, who has done nothing helpful in terms of sample-based music. Copyright law has made it illegal (even if some still practice it, but not in the same manner as it was being done in the past -- at least not "legally.") And yet... here is the Library of Congress honoring just such an album. An album that couldn't actually be released today.

If the Library of Congress really wanted to honor that album, rather than listing it in the National Registry, how about fixing the law so that creativity of that nature is allowed to flow, rather than having it criminalized?

Filed Under: copyright, de la soul, library of congress, national recording registry