Using movie samples -- legal?

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Giganova

Giganova

gimmi your mic!
hi --

I am extensively using samples from movies in my tracks. Like short phrases, some words, etc.

How's the legal situation? Do I need to get clearance for each individual sample, even though they are short, and people might not recognize them? If so, how can I get clearance?

Thanxxx!
 
A sample belongs to whoever owns the movie you sampled it from. If you're going to use it you have to get permission. Check out http://www.harryfox.com/ for some good tutorials.
 
chances are you might not get clearance.....so just dont get caught lol
 
yeah -- this is what I figure: ending up with a smash hit and not getting clearance for the samples! That'll be a disater :p
 
If you have a smash hit you have a little negotiating power there aye?
 
Just the opposite: whoever owns the source of the samples will know you've got to pay him or collect nothing.
 
well see thats the thing......whoever owns what you sample from can do more than get paid....he can make sure you dont get a hit again lol......remember the verve? and that annoying ass song called "bittersweet symphony" well the main sample running through that song was off of some rolling stones song i think and they basically ended up with the rights and over 80% of the money from the whole cd. where is the verve now? ask vh1 but dont expect them to be able to play the song on a reunion tour....rolling stones own the rights to the song
 
whether or not it's legal depends. There's a "fair use" clause regarding copyrighted works. I'm not sure the exact stipulations for movies, but the part you are sampling is legal if it is less than a percentage of the whole and how much the sample is associated with the movie.

For example, if you sample "i'll be back" from the terminator movies; even though it may only account for 1% of the dialogue in the movie, it is a signature phrase of the movie that everyone associates with the terminator movie. If you sample another phrase from the movie that is not recognizable as being from Terminator, it may fall under fair use.

"Media Law for Producers" covers this issue is decent depth. I recommend it.

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yeah i think i remember a little something about that but what i was reading was pertaining to music and not movies. the sampling or alleged sampling of certain songs. like basically a rap song usually has one sample thats played through the whole song but it was a 5 second sample off of a rock song. thats copywritten...but if the 5 second sample wasnt extracted directly from the song and it was done other instruments so the essence is the same but the sound is different, then that could be considered fair use. I need to look into that a little more. i have a rap/rock/r&b song I'm working on right now and i realized the verse sounds like an old rap song called "Tap the bottle"...i didnt realize it until one of the guys started rapping and said "I'm bout to tap the throttle and twist my hat back" and the next words out of my mouth were...."tap the bottle and twist the cap?" granted that was one of those one hit wonder songs that i only remember hearing maybe 5 times...i realized that it was pretty close....i need to go back and hear that song again to make sure I'm not dead on lol.
 
Tap The Bottle...Young Black Teenagers. I have that cassette single floating around somewhere.

As for using movie samples, they're copyrighted, just like any other published media. You have to get permission from the owner of the copyright to use them.

As for playing a musical passage that is identical to another song, but played on different instruments, thats a fine line to be walking, especially if you stand to potentially profit from it.
 
yeah it is.....i found the mp3 somewhere.....its almost the same....the bass player is playing F A# C A# C F on the song the bass is E A# C A# C E i'll try to have them change it up a bit but damn its so close it makes me a little nervous. i had the drummer listen to it and the first thing out of his mouth was "what the F***!? they stole our song!" I informed him the song was out before he ever played drums. poor guy....he meant well. anyways...they'll tell me tomorrow if they still want to do it the way it is. this ought to be good
 
so in oder to use samples from a movie, I needed to get in touch with their lawyers and get clearance? I doubt that Warner Brothers and the other studios will respond to such a letter. :confused:
 
I think I remember reading that chord progressions could not be copywritten...? So, if that's the case, shouldn't you be able to play the exact same chord progression as Tap the Bottle without any problems? If you start copying any melody lines or lyrics, that's when I thought you've crossed the line.
 
the chord progression cant be copywritten....the melody line (if its the main notice of the song) is what can be copywritten..........now on tap the bottle.....i wonder what would be considered that....i remember the chorus line....and i liked the music...but i wonder how many people would remember the music without the lyrics? plus it also didnt help that the drummer's beat is similar to that of tap the bottle too....on an A/B comparison i laugh....i told the guys they ought to do a cover of the song when they play shows since their so close to copying it....i got a few looks like my car was going to be keyed in the parking lot
 
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