Flip flop isn’t a term reserved for politician. You can include the music companies and artists as well. It's not stealing or copyright infringment when the music companies and artists are the ones doing it.
The 6th Circuit’s ruling in Bridgeport Music Inc. v. Dimension Films, held that “that a musician who copies any part -- even as little as two seconds -- of an existing recording without permission of the person who owns the copyright to the recording is in violation of the law.”
The area of music most affected by this appears to be hip hop. Does this ruling spell the end of hip hop? Maybe for people like P. Diddy who we all know takes hits from the 80’s and turns them around in to hits of the 90’s and continuing today. Many hip hop artists “sample” music and add their own flavor to the song. But this ruling could be devastating.
"The decision will kill off the art form of hip-hop," asserted Lawrence E. Feldman of Jenkintown, Pa.'s Feldman & Associates, who represents hip-hop musician Jazzy Jeff and other recording artists.
"[T]he panel's 'solution' will cause difficulties far more substantial than any problem it is purportedly addressing," wrote the Recording Industry Association of America in a Sept. 21 amicus brief filed on its behalf by Paul M. Smith of the Washington office of Jenner & Block.
I guess they are trying to say that only artists can rip off other artists. What they call sampling, we call sharing. The music industry talks about how much they are losing in sales and it is their creative ideas that are being stolen. But in essence, they are stealing too. I do not believe that when they sample music and use it for their own benefit to make millions of dollars, that the original artist is being paid.
Is it really the end of hip hop? Maybe not. Richard S. Busch of Nashville, Tenn.'s King & Ballow dismissed the warnings of disaster, noting that "each of the major record companies have clearance departments" and that licensing has become common. Every company knows that they all use each other's music and sample, but since everyone is making huge profits, nothing will be done about it. And especially calling it copyright infringment.
Perhaps what this ruling will do for the hip hop genre is truly creative an environment of original creativity and in the long run, new and better sounding music will develop. Perhaps we’ll be hearing something other than the same beats with different voices.
Comments