Music is like any other form of art where it is expected to have items borrowed from one material to another or references of a piece of music used to create new music. The process of extracting fragments from an existing musical work that is used to compose new creative pieces is known as sampling. However, one complication with sampling is that the music has copyright law provides musicians an exclusive right to their work. However, in order to prevent any copyright infringement when creating new music and sampling from the works of another musician, one should receive permission from the copyright owner. Sampled music should thus have permission from the copyright owner otherwise one risks committing a copyright infringement.
The process where one obtains permission from the owners of a sampled music is known as “sample clearance”. The process is critical since copyright infringement lawsuits can carry a burdensome legal consequence. Samples that are created without the permission infringe the composition copyright and the sound recorded copyright. An artist would thus be required to acquire full approval from the owners of the copyright this could entail finding the publisher of the tracts and the record label owner. However, samples can be sometimes short enough so that it involves a fair usage. A fair usage is usually an exception in copyright law. However, one must be careful since in case a lawsuit emerges, the jury or judge would determine whether the music abided by the parameters of fair usage.
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The case of “Blurred Lines”
One of the cases where sampling without permission resulted in a copyright claim was in the song “Blurred Lines”. Released on March 2013 by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams and the rapper T.I., it was alleged that some parts of the song had sampled the sounds and the composition of the song by Marvin Gaye called “Got to Give It Up” previously released in the year 1977. Members of the Gaye’s family sued Williams, Thicke, and T.I for infringement of copyright of the song. In the year 2015, the Marvin Gaye’s family won the case and Robin and Pharrell liable by the court. T.I. was not found liable. One of the observations put forth by the court was that even though the songs had structural differences, they had several similarities on the surface (Wingate, 2019). The court ordered that Robin and Pharrell should pay the Gaye family $5.3 million dollars (Kesslen, 2018).
Court of Appeals
The case was forwarded the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals who confirmed the previous ruling against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke on March 2018. The Marvin Gaye family was also to receive a 50 percent interest as a result of royalties that proceeded from the song (Gibbs, 2018). One of the consequences of the ruling is that artists should consider caution and carefulness when it comes to the inspiration that can lead to the creation of a song or a beat. All parts of a song that have been sampled from another song should thus have permission and a license received before the song actually gets published (Gibbs, 2018). The other consequence of the ruling was that it showed that copyright infringement could be proven in court. Zernay (2017) observed that copyright infringement had been in the past difficult to prove in a court of law. However, with the recent ruling of the song “Blurred Lines”, it showed that copyright infringement cases have undergone a significant transformation. By getting permission to sample music, artists can avoid and minimize the impact of infringement claims.
References
Gibbs, A. (2018). Marvin Gaye's Family Wins 'Blurred Lines' Appeal; Pharrell, Robin Thicke Must Pay. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/adriennegibbs/2018/03/21/marvin-gaye-wins-blurred-lines-lawsuit-pharrell-robin-thicke-t-i-off-hook/#3c271896689b
Kesslen, B. (2018). Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams to pay $5 million to Marvin Gaye estate for 'Blurred Lines'. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/robin-thicke-pharrell-williams-pay-5-million-marvin-gaye-estate-n947666
Wingate, M. (2019). Blurred Lines within the Music Industry: A Different Perspective of Copyright Law and Sampling in the Digital Age.
Zernay, R. (2017). Casting the First Stone: The Future of Music Copyright Infringement Law After Blurred Lines, Stay with Me, and Uptown Funk . Chap. L. Rev., 20 , 177.
