I'm pretty sure if you sample a snare hit or a
note, artists don't
consider
it infringement. When you sample part of a song,
that's when they start
getting unhappy if you haven't asked permission.
since no one else here seems to really know about copyright law, here's a
good page on sampling, theres a lot of other sites too... google is your
friend:
http://www.copynot.org/Pages/Music%20sampling.htm
"One note from a sound recording is a copyright violation. Saturday Night
Live was sued for using the jingle, "I Love New York" which is only four
notes. The test for infringement is whether the sample is "substantially
similar" to the original. Remember, a judge or jury is the one who
determines this and these people may be much less receptive to your music
than your fans. My point is you cannot rely on fair use as a defence. "
it doesnt really matter how the artist feels about how long something is, if
you get caught by a label sampling anything and making a decent profit off
of it, theres a good chance they will be pissed, and im sure any company
would feel the same way [sampling a movie, tv show etc]
a few years ago some artist was sued by genesis' label for taking a snare,
reversing it and timestretching it, among other effects. who knows how they
found out [he probably mentioned it somewhere], and he had to pay damages.
thankfully, most people won't hear any of our music, and i really dont give
a shit who i take samples from. :P
most people will get a cease and desist letter before they are sued anyway.
- fp