Copyright Criminals ~ Indy Lens on Sampling...

Surfing the 'tube I found Copyright Criminals on PBS's Independent Lens show. See here the trailer... Lovely stuff, sampling both great and obscure works of the past and recrafting them anew. But contentious. Who owns? Is this legal? Do you have permission? And so forth. My own opinion is that anything recorded for public consumption can rightfully in turn be remorphed by the public -- but credit should be conveyed. Straight copying is one thing, but modifying is another. If anything, there ought to be an automatic copyright payments formula. Something simple like a fraction of the % of the total time a sample is played. But part of the copyright deal has got to be automatic reuse rights -- once available, people should be compensable for uses but shouldn't be able to insist upon or dictate non-use. In any case, a fascinating thought-piece!