Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #240-samples and copyrights
A few months ago I wrote about the issue of bands using samples on their records. Mike of Kill the Man Who Questions had written about it previously. I now have some first hand experience with this and want to shed some more light into this area.

First off, most all pressing plants and CD plants now require some paperwork before they can press your record. These documents establish who the Intellectual Property Rights Owners for the music are. This would be the band, their publishing company or the label. Another document is a copyright release form, which releases the pressing plant from liability of copyright infringement. Another document is an anti piracy form which establishes the artist and title of each track. Each replicator uses variants of these forms. Usually they will provide them for you to fill out and return or let you download PDFs from their site to fill in.

This paperwork is meant to prevent record piracy and bootlegging. It also attempts to release the manufacturer from liability through the copyright release form so that if there is a copyright issue the buck is passed to the label and band. Some pressing plants still don’t require such documentation, but given today’s litigious environment, expect all of them to adopt some variant soon. There are more lawyers in America than in the whole rest of the world combined and more are being produced every day. The possibility of a band, even a fairly small time band being sued over the unlicensed use of a copyrighted sample grows every day. To legally obtain license to sample recorded works you can often obtain license through the Harry Fox Agency (http://www.harryfox.com). Most of the samples I hear on punk records come from cult films. In theory it would be possible to license such samples by contacting the owner of the material and getting permission or paying a license fee. If you don’t do this and you get busted and the owner of the copyright sues you and finds you guilty of knowingly using copyrighted material the fine is 150,000$. Plus all the merchandise has to be destroyed. The RIAA has an explanation of copyright law on their websites with links to the actual government law sites http://www.riaa.org/Copyright-Laws-1.cfm.

OK, I know half of you are saying, “Who gives a fuck” and will go on to put out a record with a sample from “Cheech and Chong’s Up In Smoke” regardless. However, consider that the pressing plant is going to listen to your test press and then want you to provide some proof of license for this material. If you can’t provide that you are going to have to re master the recording without it. You might say, fine we’ll press this at a different pressing plant. But I would say that any pressing plant that doesn’t require this sort of documentation and do audio tests of records now, will be doing so soon. So when you go to re press, you might be back at the same dilemma.

I was recently in such a position. I had to pay a license fee and remaster one of my releases without some samples or face a potential lawsuit. I can’t go into specifics on this, but suffice it to say it cost me about as much as it would to press up a few thousand copies of a new 7” release.

So here is my advice. Just drop the samples. They get old anyway, the music is what matters. Original music and artwork is always better than using someone else’s stuff. Or if you are going to record material with a sample, record that sample yourself. There is nothing to prohibit you from recording yourself parodying a movie actor or cartoon character. For instance, my band has a song which is inspired by the film Death Race 2000. Instead of sampling said movie, I’m going to just record myself saying, “That’s what we love in America, Violence! Violence! Violence!” or something like that. I mean, if you use your head you can probably produce something better than Hollywood anyway.

I for one will probably have to make the call as I re press my releases to re master them without samples or just let them go out of print. It kind of sucks that it’s come to this, but what punk label can risk a 150,000$ fine plus legal fees? It’s just the way the “industry” is heading and I think it’s time to think ahead and cover our own asses before the lawsuits start to fly. I know some will disagree with me; I’m not here to defend copyright law, the RIAA or anything like that. I’m just saying this is the way things are going and it’s easier to adjust to the reality than to get burned by the system.

OK, now onto another thing. I wrote in this column a few months ago about how I thought the argument against Sanctions on Iraq was overly simplistic and that I supported the sanctions as opposed to war. Now I want to revisit this because some people have mis interpreted my position that I support the current war. I’m totally opposed to this war. I think it’s stupid, hasty and a tragic mistake. I merely felt that the sanctions and containment were a better option for dealing with the Hussein regime than an invasion. Sanctions and containment coupled with inspections could have kept Hussein from any acts of aggression against his neighbors until another solution was found. I think Hussein is an oppressive despot and should be overthrown. However, I think this is a job best left to the people of Iraq. Exporting democracy with bombings and invasion is dicey business indeed. It’s clear to me that the foreign policy of the USA has been hijacked by an aggressive neo conservative cabal headed by Paul Wolfowitz. Their plan for a “New American Century” outlines the remaking of the world primarily in the interest of providing a stable business climate that will be dominated by US armed force and corporate interests. If you ask me these are 19th century rules for 21st century game. Using second generation warfare tactics to fight a fourth generation conflict, is bound to fail. Look forward to continued recession, more terrorist attacks, and hatred of America around the world and the use of the war as a distraction to push a right wing extremist agenda at home. We need some regime change around here.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1984

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