[rumori] Re: Some thoughts on the Fund

Nicola Battista [rumori] Re: Some thoughts on the Fund
Tue, 25 Aug 1998 14:42:48 +0200 (00904077768, 3.0.32.19980825144232.00b41960ATbox1.tin.it)

Hi Moonchild, and thanks for your feedback. I am forwarding this reply also
to all the addresses to which I sent the original message on Sample
Clearance. If some folks aren't interested, please drop me a line. I don't
want to fill your mailbox with unsolicited stuff...

At 13.24 25/08/98 +0200, you wrote:

>OK, for what i have heard a while back, You are, without problems,
>allowed to sample any piece of audio to use in your own music, but no
>more than (if i recall correctly) 20 seconds in total. Wether this goes
>for the complete song, or per sampled song (so 20s from one and 20s from
>the next) I don't know.

hmm, don't think so, the usual rules about plagiarising music werent about
a number of seconds but a number of bars (eight?) you could "copy" from another track. But those rules came out long before samplers... some folks
say that you can sample up to 3 secs or so. That's not true as this is
written nowhere and I've heard of people sued for one second or so (the
Lo-Fidelity Allstars track I menationed, for example).

Moonchild wrote:

>Creating a new piece with samples by various other artists to
>me though is a completely acceptable thing to do. After all, IMHO, it's
>not the samples by themselves that count, but the way you use them.

this is very similar to the "Fair use" doctrine of Negativland, from what I recall.


>>I like to sample. Sometimes I sample just because I like a sound and want
>>to use it.
>For me it's even different: Sometimes i *have* to sample since i don't
>have the equipment to generate my own instruments.

yup. Another good reason I forgot :) One of the great ideas behind sampling
is that you can virtually play any instrument or use any sound as a musical
instrument.


>>You hate that noisy 180 bpm gabber track? Sample it, and make a sweet
>>ambient mix if you can.
>*smile* yep, done that :)

good ;)


>Consequently, the only samples that would be allowed to be used are the
>ones cleared by the agency, or otherwise the agency would have no use
>being stated as co-writer of the work....

well of course the Agency or Fund would work correctly only with a large
number of titles in its "catalogue", like all royalty collection agencies, that deall with all the copyrighted music.


>This could be nice to share music and samples of it among the members
>ofcourse, but then there is no need for an agency unless you have a LOT
>of composers clearing their work with the agency...

exactly what I'm trying to verify... if there's any interest in this
proposal, the next step would be making a list of people who are interested
in the Fund, and a list of their tracks. Then, as soon as we have a
catalogue of -say- 200 tracks (just for the beginning), we can start
testing the system.


>>5. More problems
>>a) no one replies positively to this proposal and nothing happens
>well, at least there is one reply :)

thanks :)


>>d) you can freely sample the Fund's tracks ONLY, so the Fund would work
>>perfectly only if everyone in the music business was a member, and that
>>might never happen.
>That will never happen... see my remark above....

hehe, well I'm terribly optimist sometimes and also love utopistic stuff ;)


bye,
Nicola (Dj Batman) Battista
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