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Garrett Vaughn

ENG 114

Professor Ludlow-Mattson

15 November 2013

Exploring Intellectual Property

Copyright Criminals, a YouTube video documentary, explores the idea of intellectual

property and copyright infringement in relation to the music industry. In the documentary, it

explains that many musical artists perform sampling of other artists work. Sampling, as

defined by the documentary, is when an artist takes bits and pieces or even whole portions of

songs and places it into a new song they call their own. For example, the bass line from Under

Pressure as performed by the popular band Queen, is extensively and deliberately sampled

into Vanilla Ices Ice-Ice-Baby.I firmly believe that if an artist samples the work of another

artist, to any extent, they should give the original artist some form of recognition or credit. The

credit is owed to the original artist by the sampler out of respect for the creativity and self-

sufficiency of the industry.

Throughout its history, the music industry has always had complications when it comes

to the topics of intellectual property and copyright infringement. As explained in the YouTube

documentary, Copyright Criminals, it is extremely popular for artists to receive inspiration

from the work of other artists. From genres, to guitar solos, to bass lines, to background music,

every musical artist has been influenced by the work of another artist. However, in many cases,

admiration of the work of another artist can often turn into copyright infringement. As stated in

the documentary, it is very common for artists to sample thework of another artist in an

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attempt to create a piece of their own. Artists can do this for many reasons. They could really

admire a tone that is expressed in someones song, or they could even see possibilities of making

the original piece better,according to their standards. No matter the reason, if sampling is done

without giving recognition to the original creator, the sampling is a violation of the original

creators intellectual property rights. As a result, it is viewed as copyright infringement.

Given one of the examples in the documentary, the bass line in the Queen song, Under

Pressure, is deliberately copied into Vanilla Ices Ice-Ice-Baby. Vanilla Ice, given no

accreditation to Queen, faced several copyright infringement lawsuits. Vanilla Ice is not alone in

this area of the industry. In fact, it has become extensively popular to sample the work of other

artists. Many of which, such as the dispute between Clyde Stubblefield of the James Brown Band

and Public Enemy, over Clydes original drum beats in his song, result in a lawsuit when proper

accreditation is not given. When an artist samples the work of another artist, and does not give

credit to the original creator, the artist is stealing the intellectual property of the original creator.

In addition to the fact that the original creators work was copied and stolen from them,

another complaint of the original artist is that they are losing money as a result of the sampling.

As stated in the documentary, many artists such as Queen and Clyde Stubblefield experienced

financial losses as a result of the sampling of their work. Clyde stated that: All my life Ive

been wondering about my money. People use my drum patterns on a lot of these songs. They

never give me credit, never paid me. It didnt bug me or disturb me, but I think its disrespectful

not to pay people for what they use.

All in all, the fact is that the work of musical artists is going to be sampled by another

artist. However, whether or not the original artist is given credit for creating the piece is the

matter at hand. If the original artist is not given credit, he or she is being stolen from and, along

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with the fact that their work was copied, he or she will also suffer from financial losses. If

sampling in the industry is going to continue to occur, artists need to give proper accreditation to

the original artist. Without proper accreditation, sampling, covers, and many other forms of

elaborating on the work of other artists, will cease to exist.