Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/26/kanye-west-settles-lawsuit-with-donna-summers-estate-after-using-sample-without-permission.html
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I don’t know how he’s still popular. He’s a clown
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I think he’s gotten a new audience of right wingers since he started all this right wing shit.
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In general, I love sampled music and encourage people to use samples.
But, if you’re a dick like Kanye, you should be able to nix it.
I wonder if he tried that shit with Daft Punk that he did with Aphex Twin?
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Clowns are beloved entertainers. West is just a toxic antisemite.
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If the creator doesn’t want you to use it - don’t be a dick.
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Sampling is great, but get permission.
If you don’t get permission- a lawyer will be a lot more expensive.
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I don’t understand the legal problem with sampling, and how it doesn’t fall under Fair Use. IOW, I don’t understand where there was standing for a lawsuit, and why it was advantageous to settle.
In particular, judicious use of sampling does not take substantial amount of the original material, and does not affect the original work’s value. It creates a wholly new artifact.
Also… a broader history of copyright laws and the recording industry…
@danimagoo - know much about this legal history?
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Depending on the context in which a sample is used it can imply some kind of association with the original artist, and for obvious reasons few artists want to be associated with West right now.
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Not a ton, but I can address @jlargentaye 's question about fair use. I addressed this in another thread, but I’ll go into a little more detail here.
First of all, Fair Use is a defense to a claim of copyright infringement. There is no way to preemptively apply for or ask for a declaration of fair use. Well…technically you can preemptively sue the person you think is going to sue you for infringement, and ask the judge for a declaration that your use falls under the Fair Use exception, but that’s exceedingly rare, because who wants to spend that kind of money if you don’t have to? Anyway, my point is, people can claim something is fair use, but until someone sues them for copyright infringement, and they argue Fair Use in the trial, and the judgment goes in their favor, there’s no definitive way to know that it is fair use. Fair use isn’t black letter law. You can’t just apply a simple rule and know for certain that an infringing use will be fair use.
Ok, so what is fair use? How do courts determine if something falls under the fair use exception? It involves a case by case analysis using four factors. Those four factors are:
- the purpose and character of your use
- the nature of the copyrighted work
- the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market
That first factor is where you will hear people talk about whether a work is transformative. But transformative doesn’t just mean that you altered the original work. In fact, it doesn’t really mean that at all, although that can come into play. What it really means is that the purpose of the infringing work is different than the purpose of the original work. A perfect example is using a clip from a movie in a critical review of the movie. The purpose of the original move is to entertain the audience (and other things, but we’ll keep it simple). The purpose of a movie review is to help a potential movie goer decide if they want to go see the movie. So the purpose and character of the use of the movie clip has been transformed from the purpose and character of the movie.
The second factor just looks at type of creative work the original is. You can’t copyright facts. There’s a case studied in law school where the Supreme Court held a copyright on a phone book was invalid, because it was just a list of facts: people’s names and phone numbers. There’s no creativity involved. This factor is usually the easiest to figure out. Songs, movies, paintings, etc., are all clearly highly creative works and are afforded more protection. A blog post listing which universities offer PhDs in, I dunno, music history would not get much protection at all.
The third factor is pretty simple. How much of the original was used? If all of it was used, that weighs against fair use. If just a small amount was used, that weighs for fair use.
The final factor is also pretty simple. How will this use affect the market for the original work? If you sell bootleg copies of a movie still in theaters, that could clearly affect ticket sales. Streaming video game gameplay on Twitch, on the other hand, is free advertising for the distributor of that game and probably helps their product in the marketplace.
The last important thing to remember is that none of these four factors are determinative. You have to analyze all four factors in total, and decide who has the better claim. And the four factors aren’t weighted equally. The first and the last are the most important. I didn’t mention this, but another part of that first factor is whether or not the infringing use is for profit. This played a big part in the sampling case you mentioned. It’s true that only a small portion of the original was used, but it’s purpose and character was for profit and it wasn’t transformative because it was still music. The whole purpose is to prevent other people from profiting off of the works of others without permission. That’s the whole point of copyright. I have serious issues with current copyright law, especially the length of copyright terms, but, in general, people who create things should have some amount of control over the use of those things they create.
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How does Donna Summer’s name appear in the phone book?
Fair Use is intended to cover people for using small excerpts for the purposes of study, comment or review. It’s not meant to let someone take a chunk and incorporate it into their own stuff.
I do have some sympathy for sampling because the results can be so fun and creative.
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No, but in general usage, when we say antisemitism, we mean anti-Jewish bigotry. Appeals to dictionary definitions of terms aren’t particularly helpful in understand phenomenon like the targeting and discrimination that has been a common part of European culture for centuries now.
Oh bullshit. this isn’t just about Zionists, it’s about the fact that people DO target Jews as a specific type bigotry. That obviously predated Herzel and his movement to protect Jewish people from European bigots intent on wiping them out. I think a debate can be had about Zionism, it’s history, it’s current practice, and whether or not it’s helpful, but we should understand that he was a person in a specific historical context, looking to improve the lot of his people, going with the tools at hand, and that included ethnic based nationalism.
But yeah… Ye is an antisemite. Anyone can see that by his actions.
And if you spent more than two seconds here prior to posting this bullshit screed, you’d see that in fact, many of us are anti-Zionist, oppose this war, oppose the occupation, etc, etc… You’re clearly just here to boost up Kanye, tho, so… I’m not sure I trust the rest of what you claim to believe here…
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People call West anti-Semitic because he says stupid and hateful shit about Jewish people. He also says stupid, hateful shit in general, and if you’re still stanning for him at this point:
No amount of idol worship will ever fix your problems, make your life better, or bring you any real happiness.
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Antisemitism has always meant prejudice against Jews. You are saying that Kanye West is not antisemtic because he is not prejudiced against Semites who are not Jews. You are not denying that he is prejudiced against Jews.
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Kanye West is an African-American born in Atlanta. He has talked up how Hitler had good ideas on multiple occasions.
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When someone starts out by trying to redefine well known words, you already know:
Indeed; West is the kind of person who will say or do anything to get attention. Whether he actually believes what he spews is debatable, as mental health is an issue in his case, but in the end it doesn’t matter.
The damage wrought by such hateful rhetoric is already done.
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But, he moved to Chicago at the age of 3… he’s their problem, not ours. We don’t claim him! We got outkast, and don’t need Ye…
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This is such a dumb take you should really reflect on it. Be better.
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