The drum beat and timbres from "When The Levee Breaks" (LZ-IV) Has been sampled and used a few times. Maybe hundreds of times. The magic of that drum sound is the recording method and the space it was recorded in.
--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, Mike Dickson <mike.dickson@...> wrote:
>
> On 27/02/2011 01:59, John Hammaren wrote:
>
>
> > I guess this topic gets my ire up, since although I have the utmost
> > respect for the work and creations of others, the current state of
> > intellectual property law is a freaking mess IMHO.
> >
>
> As ever, the law is driven by those who can afford to drive it.
>
> > Iâm not a lawyer, but it hardly takes one to realize this.
> >
>
> I'm not a lawyer either, but I do have a Masters in Law and part of that
> took in the subject of copyright, designs and patents.
>
> > Throw in the current software patent nonsense and we have a bigger mess.
> >
>
> Interesting side note: you cannot patent software. It's specifically
> excluded from patent. You can copyright it, but since /ideas /cannot be
> copyrighted then it means algorithms cannot be copyrighted either. If
> you had the means you could make a functional close of (say) Microsoft
> Windows and Bill Gates could not touch you for it. Why? The source code
> would be different. The code is your work of 'art' and hence falls into
> the territory of copyright, not patent. Unless you have copied large
> parts of it /verbatim/ then you will be okay.
>
> > Pretty soon we will be able to copyright the timbre of our God given
> > voices the way things are going.
> >
>
> You can. One firm (in 1987) tried to copyright a single /letter /which
> was associated with their name. IBM tried the same thing with their
> abbreviated name and also failed. (Narrowly) This veers into the
> territory of trade marks, where a visual identifier is associated with
> name or product. This
> <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/IBM_logo.svg/800px-IBM_logo.svg.png>
> says 'IBM' whereas the same thing in copperplate script does not. If a
> visual aid works then why not an audio one? If someone has a very
> distinctive voice (I'm thinking in terms of scale like Diamanda Galas
> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAFbYN_8e7g> here) then why not? I'm not
> saying it's right or wrong, but I am saying that it's evidently possible.
>
> My favourite ever sampling story has to be the one about David Bowie's
> track 'Lets Dance'. It was very popular back in the day and that was
> oput down to the drum timbres. The kick drum and snare from the opening
> sequence were sampled /to shreds/ and were featured on dozens of other
> contemporary tunes, thanks to the Fairlight CMI. Bowie;s production team
> made litigious noises, but it all came to nothing.
>
> Why? Because both were sampled from 'Moby Dick'.
>
>
> --
> Mike Dickson, Edinburgh
>
> Free Music Project: http://www.mikedickson.org.uk/
> Or http://www.last.fm/music/Mike+Dickson
> Or http://soundcloud.com/mikedickson
> Or http://www.planetmellotron.com/revd4.htm#mikedickson
> Or http://www.myspace.com/mellotronworks
>