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Germany Realizes That Music Samples Can Be Fair Use
from the it's-a-start dept
One of the absolute worst copyright decisions of the last few decades
was the ruling in one of many Bridgeport lawsuits, which
established the idea that there simply is no fair use when it
came to music samples. The ruling found that if you did any sampling,
even if it's unrecognizable and has no impact on the original song, you
still have to pay a royalty. This seems wrong on so many levels, it's
still amazing that a judge ruled that way, ignoring the traditional four
factors test for fair use.
Over in Germany, a district court seemed to take the same path in a case
brought by German legends Kraftwerk against a hip hop artist that used a
2-second sample. However, the good news is that an appeals court has
put a bit of sanity back into the process, noting that a two second
sample used in a way where it's barely recognizable should obviously
be fair use.
The ruling is hardly a huge win, as it still requires the samples to
not use the melody and be in a
completely new piece of music (thanks to Adam for sending this in).
Overall, it's a better ruling than the original ruling, though still
seems to limit fair use way beyond what is reasonable when it comes to
music sampling.
