3 ms·

I don't think you need to pay royalties for playing 20 seconds of a song.

• masklinn 5y ago
  As long as the sample is recognisably the original piece, you’re technically in violation. Samples of single-digit notes count are supposed to be permitted. So yes, legally speaking you’re supposed to pay royalties for playing 20 seconds of a song, or even 10, or 5. The only time at which you don’t have to is when there is no way for the rightsholder to confidently state that you’re using the piece they holds rights to.
  • throw_m239339 5y ago
    > As long as the sample is recognisably the original piece, you’re technically in violation. Samples of single-digit notes count are supposed to be permitted. Bob James successfully sued rappers using a single note sampled from his original songs.
    • LocalH 5y ago
      Yet another example of how copyright is utterly broken. In no situation should a single note, played on any instrument, be covered by copyright.
• shakna 5y ago
  O'Sullivan v. Markie for the US, and Pelham, Haas v. Hütter, Schneider-Esleben in the EU. Sampling requires copyright clearance. Flat. The EU precedence is basically that if a sample can be recognised, then it is copyright infringing. That says exactly nothing about how long it is, and that is obviously an issue that scares the big records into legally checking everything, but just burns all the small ones into not sampling unless they're extremely certain. The US precedence is that you require the original copyright holder to approve the sample and its size. Which is somewhat worse than the EU rulings.