Is sampling legal?

It seems like I been sampling for a few years now and I been told different stories about sampling. Some believe its cheating, others say its illegal. I heard from a producer that your allowed to sample no more than 4 second loops. I also heard that sampling is o.k. as long as you tweak and eq'it your way. Basically I wanna know how much does it cost (average price) to sample loops or elements from a record and how do you go about resolving the legal matters before putting out your music? I ask because my biggest fear is creating a masterpiece and putting it out, then getting sued for it.

depends on the record and how u worked it. www.futureproducers.com or ascap/bmi.com and www.rapcoalition.com will give u some hints b careful

its illegal but it certainly aint cheating- i mean that doesn't make sense can you really cheat when making music?

Greg

If u remake the sample with your own instruments u won´t have to pay for sample clearence, but u still need permission from the label...

Sumtin like that...

(note I aint a lawyer, nor is dis here legal advice)

ok, 2 kinds of sample clearance, artist (aka performance) rights and songwriting (aka publishing) rights.
Songwriting is if U sample Luther Vandross, you gotta pay Luther Vandross to use his performance, AND you gotta pay the person who wrote the song to use it. If you recreate the performance on your own, all you gotta pay is publishing rights.

There is no "4 second rule", if the sample is recognizable at all (as in someone can prove you sampled it) you must pay to clear it. If you wait to clear a sample until after it blows up (See Dj Quik and the sample for "contagious" bby Truth Hurts.) you end up paying a TON more $$$ for it cuz they got you in the "rock and a hard place" spot.

ascap and the like are just big catalogs that tell you where the songwriter and performance rights owners are and help put you in contact with them to negotiatie fee's. I have seen samples for bedroom albums of groups like the smiths go for cheap, it depends more on: how big you are, if you are signed or independent etc. basically they want $$$, and they aint gonna turn you away if you aint got big loot (this is the era
of bedroom bands and digital music production and these owners know that.)they will work out a deal. I heard that the Ashanti "rain on Me" beat netted Isaac Hayes (the sample is from "the look of love" off of "to be continued") a cool half mil. Cuz it was irb gotti and a platinum artists looking for the sample, if it was you or me, we could have prolly got it for 3-5 grand.

also, if you are not gonna blow up big you gotta weigh the costs, it might cost you 15 grand to clear a whole albums samples and if its a "outta my trunk word of mouf" album, you prolly are so small it dont matter, BUT if you are the 1 in a million that goes big off this record it will cost you more in the end to get the samples cleared. clearance issues is why: souls of mischief's "cab fare" track took 5 years to get cleared, they didnt have thr $$$ they wanted for it until years later.
that said, if you chop and alter the sample to the point where it cannot be proven to come from a certain song (a matter for a jury to decide) they can't force you to ever pay since they can never prove you sampled a certain song, just that the sound you use could be that sample.

Sampling is the use of portions of prior recordings which are incorporated into a new composition. Sampling has become an integral part of many genres of music today. When you sample someone's song without permission, it is an instant copyright violation. It is the unauthorized use of copyrighted material owned by another. Sampling without permission violates two copyrights-the sound recording copyright (usually owned by the record company) and the copyright in the song itself (usually owned by the songwriter or the publishing company).

If you want to use a sample legally, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The copyright owner is usually a publishing company or record label. Remember that you must obtain permission from both the owner of the sound recording and the copyright owner of the underlying musical work. The fee for a license to use a sample can vary tremendously. The fee will depend on how much of the sample you intend to use (a quarter second is a minor use; five seconds, a major use), the music you intend to sample (a Madonna chorus will cost more than an obscure drum beat), and the intended use of the sample in your song (it is more costly to build your entire song around the sample than to give it only minor attention).

There are two different ways to pay for a license. First, you can pay a flat fee for the usage. A buy-out fee can range from $250 to $10,000 on a major label. Most fees fall between $1,000 and $2,000. The other way to pay for the license is a percentage of the mechanical royalty rate. The mechanical royalty rate is the amount a person pays to the copyright owner to make a mechanical reproduction (copy) of the song. A license which is a percentage of the mechanical royalty rate is generally between ½ ¢ and 3¢ per record pressed. Everything is negotiable and it is not unusual to get a license for free, if you ask.

If all of this sounds confusing, there's hope. There are businesses devoted entirely to securing and negotiating clearances for samples. These firms charge less than an entertainment attorney would charge and are generally more knowledgeable about the going rates for uses.

If you use samples without obtaining the proper clearance licenses, you have to be aware of the penalties. A copyright infringer is liable for "statutory damages" that generally run from $500 to $20,000 for a single act of copyright infringement. If the court determines there has been wilful infringement, damages can run as high as $100,000. The copyright owner can also get a court to issue an injunction forcing you to cease violating the copyright owner's rights. The court can also force you to recall all your albums and destroy them.

There is also a rumor going around that you can use four notes of any song under the "fair use" doctrine. There is no "four note" rule in the copyright law. One note from a sound recording is a copyright violation. Saturday Night Live was sued for using the jingle, "I Love New York" which is only four notes. The test for infringement is whether the sample is "substantially similar" to the original. Remember, a judge or jury is the one who determines this and these people may be much less receptive to your music than your fans. My point is you cannot rely on fair use as a defense.

Sampling can also have tremendous consequences if you have a record contract. Most record contracts have provisions called "Warranties", "Indemnifications" and "Representations". These provisions constitute a promise that you created all the music on your album and an agreement to reimburse the label if it is sued. These same provisions are included in all contracts throughout the entertainment distribution chain. The record company has them with the artist, the distributors with the record company, the record stores with the distributors, and so on. Well, all these warranties point back at the artist who is responsible to everyone else! Therefore, if you violate someone else's copyright, you will be paying all the bills of your record company, distributor and any stores which incur expenses as a result of your infringement. This can run into serious money as you can imagine. You will also be in breach of your record contract. Read your record contract carefully before using any samples.

As a samplist, reading the laws of sampling makes me sick.

interesting threads and info:

Music Law Forum- check out the artists trying to sue and get out of their contracts

Good looking y'all. Deffinetly helpfull. I'm still considered a rookie/bedroom producer so at times I may ask noob question but I really appreaciate the replys. peace.