[Rumori] beasties win sampling suit

[kembrew mcleod]

Unfortunately, it doesn't really contradict the NWA case, or at least not 
entirely. The thing that makes this case different is that the Beastie Boys, as 
I understand it, secured a mechanical license for the sound recording from the 
record company that released James Newton's record, but they didn't get a 
publishing license from Newton, the songwriter. The Beasties claimed that the 
part they took was so insubstantial that it didn't infringe on the heart of 
Newton's composition, and Newton and his lawyer, Alan Korn, disagreed, but 
lost.

However, the Beasties most likely would have been nailed if they hadn't gotten 
that mechanical license for the sound recording, for sampling the actual 
record. I haven't looked into this case as much as I'd like to, so I'm sure 
someone else might have a better, more nuanced explanation. Still, it does seem 
to open a little space for appropriation, though not much.

Best,

Kembrew

Quoting stAllio! the original wanksta <stalliongsta at yahoo.com>:

> this decision would appear to be the exact opposite of the nwa case
> from a few months ago, but i haven't yet found an article with a
> detailed enough analysis to be sure...
> 
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/You-gotta-fight-for-your-right-to-sample/
2004/11/10/1100021883656.html
> 
> A US appeals court has handed a victory to pioneering punk-rap group
> the Beastie Boys in a dispute over the growing musical practice of
> sampling, in which recording artists incorporate snippets of other
> songs into their own work.
> 
> The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals declined today to reconsider its
> decision last year allowing the group to use a six-second segment of
> music from jazz flautist James Newton's 1978 composition Choir.
> 
> A three-judge panel of the court held in 2003 that the band had abided
> by copyright protections by paying a licence fee for a sample of
> Newton's recording and therefore did not have to pay an additional fee
> to license the underlying composition.
> 
> That finding upheld a lower-court dismissal of the case in favour of
> the Beastie Boys, and the 9th Circuit today refused to reconsider its
> ruling before a larger 11-judge panel.
> 
> "We hold that Beastie Boys' use of a brief segment of that composition,
> consisting of three notes separated by a half-step over a background C
> note, is not sufficient to sustain a claim for infringement of Newton's
> copyright," Chief Judge Mary Schroeder wrote in her opinion.
> 
> The Beastie Boys used the sample in their song Pass the Mic on their
> 1992 album Check Your Head.
> 
> Representatives for Newton and the Beastie Boys were not immediately
> available for comment.
> 
> The Beastie Boys helped spark the modern sampling trend in popular
> music with the 1989 album Paul's Boutique, which incorporated bits of
> music from sources as diverse as Johnny Cash, Bob Marley and the
> Beatles to create new music. Sampling has since become a staple of many
> artists, especially in the rap and hip-hop genres.
> 
> The Beastie Boys have also emerged as leading advocates of a new
> approach to licensing known as the Creative Commons, in which artists
> record songs that listeners are invited to "rip, sample, mash and
> share" over file-sharing online networks like Kazaa or borrow to create
> their own compositions.
> 
> =====
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-- 
*******************
kembrew mcleod
assistant professor
department of communication studies
university of iowa

contact info:
1037 e. washington st.
iowa city, ia 52240
kembrew-mcleod at uiowa.edu
319-341-3583

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