Copyright Criminals

A FILM PRODUCED BY BENJAMIN FRANZEN AND KEMBREW MCLEOD

Can you own a sound? As hip-hop rose from the streets of New York to become a multibillion-dollar industry, artists such as Public Enemy and De La Soul began reusing parts of previously recorded music for their songs. But when record company lawyers got involved everything changed. Years before people started downloading and remixing music, hip-hop sampling sparked a debate about copyright, creativity and technological change that still rages today

Discussion Questions

1. In your opinion, is sampling a form of copyright infringement?

Explain your position.

2. Do you agree that, as was stated in the film, hip-hop’s sampling

is no different from other artistic work (e.g. Andy Warhol’s paintings

of soup cans or a photographer’s taking scenes and reconstructing

them)? Why or why not?

3. In the current remix culture, when anyone can create something

using digital technology, how is authorship being redefined? Is the

composer who writes an original piece of music any more of an author

than the person who takes that original composition and combines it

with other pieces of music to create a new composition?