September 22, 2006

Acknowledging Samples

Early this week, I posted a question to the CNI-Copyright listserv. I asked a simple question about the legality of using a piece of music from another source (not sampling, but using the notes) that is clearly identifiable as that source without any credit. I didn't realize the heated discussion that would follow. It appears that people are greatly divisive over this issue. In practice, there are two cases that come to mind, one is wherin fair use was upheld in the sampling of Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman by 2 Live Crew. The other is where a use was ruled not fair by Vanilla Ice sampling of Queen. I would think that this would mean that it is not always clear cut that a music sample could be taken without at least some form of attribution. That was my question. Even if a use if fair, can it be lifted without attribution. The answer appears to be legally no in most cases (some argued all). But what about academic and professional courtesy. I first thought of this question because of the blatant plagiarism going on in blogs today. People seem to think that it is alright these days to take someone else's words and expressions and claim them as their own. In some cases, people are just too lazy to find out who said something first, and then don't bother to mention that it wasn't them. Steven Jamar posted an interesting response where he discussed an interesting brouhaha in his words about Bob Dylan's current work in which Henry Timrod was used without attribution. I am going to argue right here and now that we need, as a society, to return to responsible scholarship and accept when what we do it a derivative of someone else. Even if and especially when a use is done in a completely fair way, there should be some form of professional courtesy. It seems to be lacking in the me generation. Thanks for reading my rant.

Posted by vvarvel at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2006

You Tube sued over copyright infringement

A journalist and well-known helicopter pilot in Los Angeles has filed suit against video-sharing site YouTube, claiming that it encouraged users to violate copyright law.

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Posted by vvarvel at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)