I've been searching the forum for about an hour and have'nt found anything yet. I want to know if your downloading sample from yahoo or google or anywhere,(Im talking about samples like a single kick, snare, hat, bass or any intrument, but just as a single hit not like a loop or riff or vocals) is it legal to use them with out actully buying cd's with sample kits. Cuz i have hundreds of beats made but i havent copyrighted anything because i dont know if it legal of not. ive heard something about if its less then like 3 seconds you dont have to clear your samples. i oftend take single kicks or snares from old records is that alright??
i need some help on sampling laws...
- Thread starter Marc Mag
- Start date
TelePaul
J to the R O C
Marc Mag said:
This is largely due to whether the site offers royalty free samples. If you're getting them for free, I imagine that they're intended for personal use, and single hits are often given as a taster to the full sample kits. It really depends on the site you're getting them from. If you pay, you can obviously do whatever you want with the samples (within reason). But alot of freebies are copyright free as well.
Marc Mag said:
No, sadly it aint alright, not in the legal sense anyways. The 5 second rule, or 3 second rule, or 10 second rule, they're all BS. If you take ANY part of something that the copyright still exists on without the permission of the copyright holder, you;re technically violating copyright law. (This is asusming you intend to make money off said infringement; you can cover anything ya like if you don't make money off it). The copyright does run out on certain pieces though; for example, alot of early blues stuff is now royalty free.
That said, it would be hard to prove that the kick you sample is from a specific recording...in fact it'd be damn near impossible, unless you sampled an entire bar of a very famous tune.
talontsiawd
New member
Obviously if you D/L them you don't have the documentation telling you if they are royalty free. But you can probably find the info if you paid attention for where it came from. It's not legal if you didn't purchace but who is going to know?
Thx a million for clearing that up for me guy. i just got one more question,im looking at buying sample kits on ebay,
http://cgi.ebay.ca/GIANT-HIP-HOP-SAMPLES-KIT-COMPATIBLE-WITH-FL
STUDIO_W0QQitemZ230084608435QQihZ013QQcategoryZ41785QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Hopefully that link works, but if not, Its juss that it says that it has all of 50 cent, dr dre, timbaland, nas...sample kits, so is if i do buy something like that is it legal to sell if i do make beats with it?, i just want to buy some sounds that are legal, since i will be copyrighting my beats and sending them to record labels. Does anyone know if using those sample is considered legal?
http://cgi.ebay.ca/GIANT-HIP-HOP-SAMPLES-KIT-COMPATIBLE-WITH-FL
STUDIO_W0QQitemZ230084608435QQihZ013QQcategoryZ41785QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Hopefully that link works, but if not, Its juss that it says that it has all of 50 cent, dr dre, timbaland, nas...sample kits, so is if i do buy something like that is it legal to sell if i do make beats with it?, i just want to buy some sounds that are legal, since i will be copyrighting my beats and sending them to record labels. Does anyone know if using those sample is considered legal?
talontsiawd
New member
The link didn't work but usually those banks are mearly someone who just chopped drums and hits out of songs. That isn't legal to even sell really. So you technically would have issues if you copywrote it and someone said you infringed.Marc Mag said:Thx a million for clearing that up for me guy. i just got one more question,im looking at buying sample kits on ebay,
http://cgi.ebay.ca/GIANT-HIP-HOP-SAMPLES-KIT-COMPATIBLE-WITH-FL
STUDIO_W0QQitemZ230084608435QQihZ013QQcategoryZ41785QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Hopefully that link works, but if not, Its juss that it says that it has all of 50 cent, dr dre, timbaland, nas...sample kits, so is if i do buy something like that is it legal to sell if i do make beats with it?, i just want to buy some sounds that are legal, since i will be copyrighting my beats and sending them to record labels. Does anyone know if using those sample is considered legal?
On the other side, how unique is the actual drum really. If it's easily reproduced then it's pretty unlikely you can get sued. So alot of copywrite stuff comes down to judgement.
Where you can easily find royalty free drumkits...Guitar center, online distributors, etc. What i do personally, take refills, drumkits, vinyl, etc, and make my own kits from these. EQ them to my liking, layer them, etc, so the original source doesn't sound the same (even if it is royalty free). That is more so i have my own personal drums than copywrite issues (i sample) but it can defineatly work in your advantage.