dirtyp said:
I was wondering since song titles cant be copyrighted, does that include the hook?
And if i cut parts of a song to say something different is that legal?
I know you can use public speakers speaches.
I hear alot of samples in songs but most are in the chorus
As a general rule, if you're doing something sufficiently commercial that you're worried about it, it's worth getting a copyright lawyer's opinion. I am not a copyright lawyer (though I have studied communications law a good bit), so take what I say with a grain of salt (or several).
In general, the question of copyright infringement considers the following:
- The nature of the copyrighted work. Factual content is harder to protect.
- The nature of the derivative work. Does the work serve a significant literary or artistic purpose? For example, a musical work that uses another musical work probably does. A literary criticism probably does. Someone copying DVDs and selling them out of the back of a truck does not.
- The length of the copied portion proportional to the original work. The smaller the sample, the less likely you'll have problems.
- The financial impact on the value of the original work. This one can be tricky. While the answer for sampling is probably zero...
- One could reasonably argue that, for (an extreme) example, a sufficiently vulgar or offensive rap using clips from Sinatra would royally annoy Sinatra fans if they heard it and might devalue the work as a whole.
- This is also particularly an issue if the sample ends up capturing a large part of the character of the original work, since in essence, you could say that it reduces the need to own the original work.
Either way, on this point, you really have to take into consideration the nature of the original work, its audience, and the overlap with your audience, as well as the opinion of the copyright holder.
- The purpose of the derivative work. Is it commercial use or non-profit? This can have a significant impact in edge cases, though I'd say it is arguably the least important consideration of the lot.
I'm sure some people will argue with that last point, as for-profit versus not-for-profit use was once the most important consideration... but I would say that it has quickly declined in importance. This is largely for two reasons:
- because even most non-commercial use ends up having some secondary commercial effect, even if it is only selling banner ads to pay for costs, and
- because a lot of commercial use such as parody is almost always protected.
There have also been several (relatively public) cases where teachers have done copying on a large enough scale that they got into a lot of trouble, even though they were operating in a completely not-for-profit capacity....
There's a ton of case law on this subject, and lots of contradictory rulings that have to be taken in the context of the circuit in which the rulings were handed down. In many cases, seemingly minute details in the specifics of a case have had a significant impact on the outcome of the cases.
As a good general rule, you should contact the copyright owner and request permission if possible. There are also many clearinghouses for legal samples, etc. that may prove to be useful sources for permission.
Finally, I would recommend the following reading on the subject:
Derivative Works (Wikipedia)
What is fair Use? (Wikipedia)
10 Copyright Myths (CopyLaw)
U.S. Copyright Office Publications (USCO)
Circular 1: What Can be Copyrighted, etc. (USCO)
Fair Use (USCO)
Derivative Works (USCO)
