Okoro 1

Onyeomachi Okoro Prof. Collin L-Mattson English 114 18 November 2013 Criminals of Copyright or Inspired Musicians? Musical artists are constantly being influenced by remixing, or sampling their work from somewhere else. The film Copyright Criminals goes even further to discuss whether it is justified for DJs or sampling artists to incorporate other pieces of music in theirs. Critics such as Steve Albani believe that these musicians are cheating themselves and other artists by sampling others work. Merely sampling works from other artists should not constitute as copyright, but taking an original songs beat or lyrics does. The documentary Copyright Criminals was produced by Benjamin Franzen in order to investigate the work of both DJs and sampling artists. This is due to the fact that many critics, a prime example being Steve Albani feel that these musicians are imposing on the copyright laws by using small portions of previously existing songs. The film interviewed sampling artists and hip-hop artists along with producers who dont agree with the work of these artists. The purpose was to give a non-biased take on both sides of the argument in order to give the public the choice to decipher for themselves what should be considered copyright infringement .The reason for the label of copyright criminal is because these criminals are said to be infringing on intellectual property. Intellectual Property is creative material that is originally thought up and claimed through copyright, trademark, or patents. The source of the controversy that surrounds this definition is what people view as original creative material.

Okoro 2

The art of a Hip-Hop DJ, or disc jockey, is to back up a rapper or artist using beats that are remixed by the DJ himself. They use tools such as turntables, laptops, and stereo systems in order to create the sounds that the artist perform over. DJs often make their own beats or in other cases take a single beat or multiple beats from other songs and build upon them in order to create a completely different beat. According to DJ Abilities and Mc Eyedea in the interview, the turntables are considered a new instrument compared to the old-school drum or guitar. The turntables have the ability to produce a more intricate and complex sound because the fast paced movement of your fingers against the record create a sound that cannot be duplicated by any other instrument. Musician and recording engineer, Steve Albani disagrees with their form of art because he believes that the DJ should not profit off of someone elses beat that has already been created, copyrighted, and released to the public. On the other hand, the DJ himself having the artistic ability to be able to use the tools he does in order to produce a completely different beat and sound should be looked at as now obtaining his own form of intellectual property because the finished product of his work is indeed an original piece. Music artists who use sampling as a method for producing music are both similar and different to DJs. Sampling music is basically taking a sample or piece of a song and using it in a different song. Just in the definition alone, you can already see that sampling is not stealing. Artist that sample usually use a small portion of music in order to incorporate into a song they have created on their own. Shock G from Digital Underground in his interview said, What the photographer is to the painter is what the modern producer, DJ, and computer musician is to the instrumentalist. Here he explains that although it may be easier to sample a piece of music rather than playing the instrument, sampling is the new form of music just like taking pictures is the new form of portraits.

Okoro 3

According to Albani, sampling music is a lazy form of creating music. On the other hand, wouldnt it also be fair to say that stopping artists from building upon previous works stifles the flow of creativity that the artist is working hard to produce? Artists are always being inspired and influenced by something whether it be a personal experience or the underlying message or emotions of a song. It is quite contradictory to therefore tell an artist not to relate to a song which was put out with the sole purpose of people understanding and relating to the songs message. Copyright infringement laws should come into play when an artist takes a song using either the tune or lyrics and tries to put it out as their own without acknowledging or giving any kind of credit to the original artist. It is never ok to take an original piece, write your own lyrics to it, and publicize it without letting the public know that you were influenced by another artists sound. DJs and artist who sample work should not be labeled as copyright criminals. Art is put out for others to relate to and even build upon it if they desire to. Incorporating others work into a new piece should not be seen as plagiarism but, expanding on ones artistic expression