Copyright law killed the sampling star

THE MILLENIUM Copyright act may have claimed an entire genre of music following a ruling from an appeal court which has ruled that sampling is piracy.

Until yesterday an artist only had to pay for samples that were fairly large.

However, thanks to the new ruling musicians will have to pay out for snippets — smaller notes, chords and beats that are not the artist's original composition, it seems.

At the centre of the argument was the 1990 NWA song "100 Miles and Runnin' which sampled a three-note guitar riff from a 1975 Funkadelic track about the art of combining riding and making preservatives called "Get Off Your Ass and Jam." NWA lowered the pitch of the sample, which was only two seconds long but is looped to extend to 16 beats and appears five times throughout the track.

According to Associated Press, three judges sitting on the panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said the same laws currently in place to halt music piracy will also apply to digital sampling.

The court said that an artist who acknowledges that she or he made use of another artist's work may be liable. The said that rappers will have to get a license or not sample. In some cases this could cost techno, or rap stars an absolute fortune. Particularly if all the ancient rock stars who have been sampled since the millennium copyright act came in emerge from their Californian condos bearing writs claiming it is their three notes that have been stolen.