Re: Samples used on AJ compilation??

James Perrett (James.Perrett@see_signature.soc.soton.ac.uk)
Thu, 09 Jan 1997 13:54:05 +0000


Marc Wright wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> And on a related subject - are we opening ourselves up to potential
> legal hassles if uncleared samples are used on the compilation?
>
> I don't really want to remove them, but I also don't want to spend next
> Christmas in jail. :)
>
> Marc.

Technically there is a problem with uncleared samples. If you are making
a CD for commercial sale then you should make sure that all the samples
on it are cleared. However the general rule seems to be that samples are
only cleared if you think someone will recognise them. In the case of
the AJ list compilation, where it will probably be a limited edition,
non-profit making release I wouldn't have thought there would be a
problem, but if you sampled an artist who was totally anti sampling and
this artist got to hear about it then you could be in trouble. How
much of a chance do you want to take?

In the UK the people to contact to start off with are the Mechanical
Copyright Protection Society. I would imagine that there is a similar
body in other countries. If they can't clear the sample themselves then
they should be able to tell you who can. One of our clients ended up
contacting Donovan himself when he wanted to use a guitar riff from
one of his songs. In this case they were able to get permission to use
this sample for free.

James.

-- 
**********************************************************************
*  James Perrett    Ocean Technology Division                        *
*                   Southampton Oceanography Centre,                 *
*                   Empress Dock, Southampton SO14 3ZH, U.K.         *
*           Phone +44 (0)1703 596141, Fax +44 (0)1703 596149         *
* e-mail jrp@soc.soton.ac.uk             http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/ *
**********************************************************************