Legality of the Traktor Remix decks

[tombruton69]

thats the song they jacked for stairway to heaven

http://www.warr.org/zep.html#Thieves

here is a list of songs they stole some allmost word for word.

narrah, just to comment on ur comment wat they really did was mashup folk music and blue's lyrics, to be fair it did get good results

[tokenasianguy]

what about if the samples are taken from preview clips or mixes that have been uploaded by the producer/dj? or if they're sampled from high quality preview clips from shops like itunes/beatport/etc?

Using ANY part, of ANY song, for ANY reason WITHOUT paying licensing is illegal...Doesn't matter how you spin it (pun intended). Doesn't matter whether it's just a sample of a song, or you're or a DJ creating a mix CD, or you own a coffee shop and you play background music. It's all illegal unless you pay for licensing.

There are some exceptions, like if you only use 2 seconds or something like that...But for all intensive purposes, using any part of any song for any reason (that involves anyone other than just you listening) is illegal...technically...Whether or not you'll get caught is a different story.

[tokenasianguy]

and the funnier thing is the rolling stones stole it from an early blues artist, can't find the info on the web though... It's not new with the rolling stones either, they stole a lot of blues melodies and lyrics...

I think it might have been Muddy Waters. When you think about it, blues was the entire foundation of Rock n Roll so absolutely a lot of stuff was stolen and/or borrowed. Walt Disney copied his earliest works from other people, it's just that at that time, there was little to no copyright laws, and the people that created them are the corporations that own the works. When you pay for licensing, it never finds its way to the artist. In Canada is barely finds it's way to the publishing house because there's no method of distribution in place...So the governing body that's responsible for collecting the licensing fees is sitting on a huge slush fund.

[3heads]

There are some exceptions, like if you only use 2 seconds or something like that...

That's an urban legend. The length of the sample does not matter. If people are able to recognize a teensy tinsy sample might be a different issue. But it's not technically legal without permission.

[synthet1c]

thats the song they jacked for stairway to heaven

that just rocked my world! it's all been builton a foundation of lies

[MiL0]

Using ANY part, of ANY song, for ANY reason WITHOUT paying licensing is illegal...Doesn't matter how you spin it (pun intended). Doesn't matter whether it's just a sample of a song, or you're or a DJ creating a mix CD, or you own a coffee shop and you play background music. It's all illegal unless you pay for licensing.

There are some exceptions, like if you only use 2 seconds or something like that...But for all intensive purposes, using any part of any song for any reason (that involves anyone other than just you listening) is illegal...technically...Whether or not you'll get caught is a different story.

So what we're talking about is licensing rather than copyright infringement (seeing as I'm sampling preview clips that have been made publically available by the artist, for example).

So what's the difference between that and uploading a mix to the internet that features copyrighted tracks? Are dj's licensed to mix and upload their mixes in this manner? Why do clubs/bars have to pay a license fee to play music but dj's who upload their mixes don't? And if mixes are acceptable then so should 'remix sets' surely?

I get what everyone is saying... it's just to me, there's a bit of a double standard going on here and it shows how out of date copyright/licensing laws are. And it's going to get much worse if 'remix sets' catch on...

[synthet1c]

who decided it's a good idea to give away a remix set anyway, it would take a lot of time to cultivate a decent library of sounds that work together, that is your individuality right there... I can't see any individuals freely giving away their packs legal or not... in the case of companies giving away free stuff that isn't really free, companies are buying your goodwill in the hope that you buy one of their products, read their articles, go to their shows etc...

I think this is completely hypothetical in that case... using samples from other peoples music is a grey area, but the rules on the likely hood of getting in trouble should be.

• are you just doing it in your community/bedroom? do whatever you like no one will care.
• if your making a little money off it are they signed to a major label? don't use it period.

are you going to make any money off playing a remix set? no probably not.. I doubt it would even be tolerated at your residency as it would be too patchy for the crowd without a really carefully chosen loop library, but in this case you probably create all your own loops so you can get exactly the sound your after.

The only variable is if native instruments are in bed with beatport and the record companies, in this case stems could be sold as proposed at the start of the year by a few different people, then the rules would have to be rewritten, but imho it is highly unlikely that your going to get stems from major artists/anyone who is smart.

[tokenasianguy]

So what we're talking about is licensing rather than copyright infringement (seeing as I'm sampling preview clips that have been made publically available by the artist, for example).

Often times the "artist" is not the one that owns the music, but the "publisher" or "label". There was a case where Radiohead made the raw files of their songs available for free online for anyone to do as they wanted with, and a bunch of the people that "remixed" their songs received a cease and desist notice from the lable and/or publisher.

So what's the difference between that and uploading a mix to the internet that features copyrighted tracks? Are dj's licensed to mix and upload their mixes in this manner? Why do clubs/bars have to pay a license fee to play music but dj's who upload their mixes don't? And if mixes are acceptable then so should 'remix sets' surely?

DJ's aren't allowed to upload mix sets. The law could be different worldwide, but in Canada, even though you pay for licensing to "play" music live, you're still not allowed to distribute mix CD's. I'm sure that falls under a different law, but if you watch they Doc I mentioned, they talk about how the "DJ" Girl Talk would have to pay $2.5 to use the songs he features in his mix CD's, because he's a "mash-up" DJ.

I get what everyone is saying... it's just to me, there's a bit of a double standard going on here and it shows how out of date copyright/licensing laws are. And it's going to get much worse if 'remix sets' catch on...

Absolutely. Most of the money isn't finding its way to the artists, so it's a bunch of corporations that were started in the early 1900's who have conquered and controlled every creative front since then.

[tokenasianguy]

My friend used to create drum loops and combine them with acapella's that he obtained online. Someone contacted him and said he had to remove them immediately or there would be legal action.

[RockingClub]

My friend used to create drum loops and combine them with acapella's that he obtained online. Someone contacted him and said he had to remove them immediately or there would be legal action.

That's exactly why I would be careful with taking samples from everywhere and using it in my projects. If they really want to start legal action things can get very expensive quite quickly.