Sample clearance / ideas / thoughts / experiences

Hello Andy

Sure you are rigth by saying that if you never use any copyrighted material, you wont get in trouble. But you have to keep in mind, that nowadays there are so many sample lybraries and synth presets that we all use from time to time ( most of us with DAW ’s ). So it’s just important to know when you could be in trouble without knowing.

If you say its not necessary to use original dialogues from movies and you could just re-record that, i think thats even whorst as you A ) probably still infringe legal rigths by doing so and B ) loose the original idea why you wanted this original sample. Sure it could sound paradox saying if you alter it so extreme that nobody will recognise it you’re fine, but im just speaking about the legal situation.

Hi Daniel. The impression that I have, is that a short phrase of spoken word is not copyrighted (I’m referring to the actual words), but the (audio/film) recording of the actor saying those words is. Often when people want to use some spoken word from a film it is because of the charateristic of the sound, for instance, you might like to use a line from a 50s sci-fi movie or an old newsreel, it will likely be the quality of that vintage sound which is so appealing, and yes, you probably want to use the specific phrase too. So what I’m saying is that unless you have the specific permission to use that audio, you should not use it, and it is quite possible to come up with something similar yourself. Ok, I admit that there is a fair possiblity of that sounding naff, but if you know how to go about it you could easily record some spoken words that sound as if they are from a 50’s sci-fi movie, digitally age them etc. It’s the same with things like samples of Police radio, news announcements, public information films etc, you could easily emulate these sorts of sounds.

I think if you want to use a sample of spoken word from a film because you want the sound of that actor, that’s a different story, you cannot do that without permission.

I think if you want to use a sample of spoken word from a film because you want the sound of that actor, that’s a different story, you cannot do that without permission.

I will check the web and with my lawyer again how exactly it is regarding movie dialogue sampling. As far as i know, you can use pieces of dialogues as described in my last post. There are many styles in music where it’s kinda fashion to work with these samples ( Hip-Hop / Rap / EBM / Industrial etc. ) and i dont think that anybody like Georg Bush gave Eminem the permission to use some of his dialogues

But we should only post facts which we can be assure, that they are correct. So if anybody has some more infos about it, please post it with the referal link to the articles.

THX

As far as i know, you can use pieces of dialogues as described in my last post. There are many styles in music where it’s kinda fashion to work with these samples ( Hip-Hop / Rap / EBM / Industrial etc. ) and i dont think that anybody like Georg Bush gave Eminem the permission to use some of his dialogues

But we should only post facts which we can be assure, that they are correct. So if anybody has some more infos about it, please post it with the referal link to the articles.

THX

Hi Daniel, yes, I certainly agree that there are many genres of music that rely heavily on “borrowing” those sorts of samples, as you say, Hip Hop in particular and D’n’B a lot over here particularly in the underground scene, a lot of this will go unnoticed or unchallenged, but if you move into the realms of any kind of commercial release you run the risk of getting into trouble, so personally speaking, I would prefer the peace of mind of only using samples that I know are cleared for commercial use. I get your point though, this is just my opinion, and obviously if there is some law which allows some use of these sorts of samples it would be pretty neat, and useful to know.

Good read for everyone. I vote we make it a sticky for a few days. What do you think Scott?

With all the comments so far, it seems to be pushing itself to the top of the forums by itself which is great!

Is it OK to use a voice sample / snippet from a movie or television broadcast ?

This is probably the most “unclear” part of the copyright thing. If you take a voice sample of a Hollywood production you will probably end up in trouble. It is not allowed to use such phrases from movies etc., but if you cut only a few seconds and alter the sound ( pitch shifting, transform, FX etc. ) and it’s not neccessarely “Take the red pill and you’ll stay in wonderland” from the Matrix trilogy, you probably never face any problems as long as it wont be a billboard chartbreaker.

I tried to find a clear and 100% safe answer for this question i the internet and in court cases.

What could be used as a guideline is the following :

• Movie dialogues or at least the person who speakes, are protected by copyright
• If you use only a small part of it once ( not looped troughout the whole track ) it will probably be covered as a “fair use”.
• Court will decide on the “fair use” principle as : A ) did you build your work on the original work / theme ? B ) Did the copyright owner loose some potentional income because of your work ?

BUT keep in mind :

“Because of the defendant’s burden of proof, some copyright owners frequently make claims of infringement even in circumstances where the fair use defense would likely succeed in hopes that the user will refrain from the use rather than spending resources in his defense. This type of lawsuit is part of a much larger problem in First Amendment law; see Strategic lawsuit against public participation.”

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

this post is so useful! thanks SonicCube!

If you are in the UK, there is no “Fair Use” , there is however a similar “Fair Dealing” please see section 6 on fair dealing on this page: http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p27_work_of_others In fact, study the whole site, it is very informative. There does not seem to be any provision for the unauthorised commercial use of any snippets of sound etc.

If you are in the UK, there is no “Fair Use” .

Thanks Andy

This is exactly what we need, it would be very helpfull if people post some facts to that thread related to different countries, as we are “multicultural” here on AJ