
The Musicians Behind One of the Most Sampled Songs in History Finally Got Paid - ZeljkoS
https://thump.vice.com/en_uk/article/the-musicians-behind-one-of-the-most-sampled-songs-in-history-finally-got-paid
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skwosh
The song that the article refers to is Amen by The Winstons (1969), a cover of
the gospel-like Amen by Jester Hairston (1963).

Though the drum break was played (and probably "composed") by band-member G.
C. Coleman, the cheque was made out to the copyright holder and singer of the
band Richard L. Spencer.

I wonder what would be different if Sony held the rights.

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gluelogic
This is a very informative video on the "Amen break"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac)

I am sure most readers have heard it somewhere. It really is ubiquitous.

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DiabloD3
I watch this documentary every few years because of how well put together it
is. The fact that it, itself, is being played on a record is awesome.

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DougN7
I'm the first to admit I'm musically illierate but how likely is it that no
one has never played a (simple?) six second beat like that before? I don't
know what drum music looks like on paper but six seconds can't have so much
information content that it hasn't been hit upon by others in the past, can
it?

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mdda
The words "I" "have" "a" "dream" take less than six seconds to say, so surely
that information content has been hit upon by others in the past... As someone
else has posted, there's a great documentary about the whole
sampling/resampling scene that explains a bit about the attractions of this
particular sonic segment : Suffice to say, there's a lot more to it than just
a 1-2-3-4 pattern.

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SixSigma
Funny you should mention that, the mlk family retain copyright of the
recording, after a lawsuit with CBS, of that speech which is why you don't
hear it in full.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream)

Though I suspect you know that already.

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steve19
Can someone explain why the artist cannot sue everyone who sampled the track?
Seems like plenty of lawyers who would happily take it on given the recent
successful lawsuits? [0]

Does their limited sampling not constitute copyright infringement or is the
ownership/creation disputed?

[0] [http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/robin-thicke-and-
phar...](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/robin-thicke-and-pharrell-
lose-blurred-lines-lawsuit-20150310)

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sehugg
(I'm not a lawyer... this is not legal advice... etc)

But I think he probably could try it if he wanted to. There are a number of
"sample trolls" using technology that finds samples in old songs:
[http://www.project-disco.org/intellectual-
property/040914-wh...](http://www.project-disco.org/intellectual-
property/040914-why-are-we-seeing-new-sampling-suits-over-old-songs/)

The statute of limitations for copyright infringement usually starts when the
infringement is discovered:
[http://law.freeadvice.com/intellectual_property/copyright_la...](http://law.freeadvice.com/intellectual_property/copyright_law/copyright_statute_limitations.htm)

