Anybody know what the rules are for sampling old tunes? I heard something like if 50 years had past then the material was fair game, including film quotes etc. Is this the case or are there murky lines in this area?
What can I steal!!!??? 
It is a very complicated issue but the rule is 75 years from date of publication, however there is the Copyright Term Extension Act which the publisher may extend another 20 years I think Walt Disney did that for Mickey Mouse
Here is a US site which is pretty good and EEC law is very similar
http://www.superswell.com/samplelaw/main.html
My tip:
Use the sample in such a terrible way that no-one ever gets to hear it & you dont get successful AND you dont get sued - Sounds easy?! LOL
Iāve used bits & pieces before - just a Kick or Snare, here & there. Not a full phrase or musical element.
If I was to use something more musicalĀ - it would be so far from the original that you wouldnt be able to tell.
Nice one! Gonna eat food with massive fibre content for lunch so I have plenty of toilet reading time later! 
[quote]ICN (28/10/2010)[hr]My tip:
Use the sample in such a terrible way that no-one ever gets to hear it & you dont get successful AND you dont get sued - Sounds easy?! LOL
Iāve used bits & pieces before - just a Kick or Snare, here & there. Not a full phrase or musical element.
If I was to use something more musical- it would be so far from the original that you wouldnt be able to tell.[/quote]
I suppose I could grind some recognisable samples through effects processors until they are mangled beyond any recognition. Be nice to use some recognisable elements though so I can tap into emotions.
A friend of mine suggested finding out who published the stuff and get emailing. Not a bad idea I suppose, some people may be flattered, some people may get down right angry, who knows!
What we could do is develop a thread of lists and links to stuff which is free to sample. Iāll kick off with this:
http://www.dyers.org/blog/archives/2007/10/26/the-top-10-music-inspiring-horror-movies-in-the-public-domain/
Keep em comin!
Ok you could got to the trouble of making the sample unrecognisable but maybe you want the sample to be recognized, so just sample it, Iāve heard thousands of tracks with clips of audio from either another track or Movie, sometimes even both and Iāve never heard any of these artist being sued.
The Prodigy: Not sure if they got sued by the BBC for sampling their adverts but they sure befitted from the publicity.
The Verve: many think that these guys would have faded into the background had they not been sued for bitter sweet by the Rolling stones.
we all know Vanilla Ice wouldnāt have seen the light of day with out the blatant sample of Under pressure
Thats true! I suppose you could just have fun and sample what you want and take a chance.
Vanilla Ice did get his *** handed to him over the under pressure sample though! :w00t:
Some bluesy stuff here, for maybe a Moby style project? 
http://www.publicdomain4u.com/
Also some classic movie stuff and more here
http://www.desertislandfilms.com/clindex.html
Some cool free old horrors here!
Category horror
List of free horror movie sites here
http://horror.about.com/od/horrortoppicklists/tp/freeonlinemoviesites.htm
This is all legal by the way
[quote]gavisthename (28/10/2010)[hr]Thats true! I suppose you could just have fun and sample what you want and take a chance.
Vanilla Ice did get his *** handed to him over the under pressure sample though! :w00t:[/quote]
yeah he lost everything he made from that track but he still earned money after
Unless you are releasing it I wouldnāt worry about it.
If you are then either try get permission, re-record your own version, or just publish it and be damned.
Loads of stuff on Bāport with blatent samples so it either isnāt that hard, no-one cares anymore, or no one is making any money.
As long as you are fine with all that, sorted!
Good call! Iām just gonna throw caution to the wind, pull my pants down and sample away!!! :Wow:
Good for you!!! now remember when youāre in court donāt say Jon told me to do it hahahahaha
Hell yeah! to blatent samples on BP.
Heard a mnml track the other day with a sample from an 80ās electronic-y pop track -Ā just remembered - Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer. That Flute Sound.
Awful track & an obvious sample - but wondered what was gonna happen to the Guys? Probably nothing cos its not gonna sell anything.
I learned something really cool the other day.
If you Re-Create the sound or riff by actually playing it then copyright laws dont apply.
The sampling / copying ONLY applies to copying and pasting sounds.
So all Iāve been doing lately is just finding a sound and then recreating it myself.
[quote]jon_fisher (28/10/2010)[hr]Good for you!!! now remember when youāre in court donāt say Jon told me to do it hahahahaha[/quote]
I will tell the court the decision was approved by Jon Fisher Publishings and I was forced to remove my under garments whilst sampling! 
Thanks for the horror sites - i love crappy old horror movies
[quote]slender (28/10/2010)[hr]Thanks for the horror sites - i love crappy old horror movies :D[/quote]
May I recommend āThe Brain That Wouldnāt Dieā ā¦ thats some funny sh*t!
[quote]gavisthename (28/10/2010)[hr][quote]slender (28/10/2010)[hr]Thanks for the horror sites - i love crappy old horror movies :D[/quote]
May I recommend āThe Brain That Wouldnāt Dieā ā¦ thats some funny sh*t! :D[/quote]
Looks great and something i can watch with my 10 year old
He/she will requesting to āleave the lights onā for at least a month after watching that bad boy! :w00t: