Ethical and Legal Issues: The Remix Culture

The 1976 Copyright Act states that the owner of copyright has exclusive rights to reproduction, prepare derivative works, perform work publicly and distribution. Musical works is a form of art and expression that is covered under the copyright act.

While interning at Warner Music Group last year in their Television and Film Licensing department, there were many times when a client would ask for a certain song for a television show or a film, and we could not distribute it because of sampling and/or copyright issues. This was a prevalent issue in a certain genre of music, rap/hip hop. Sampling is one of the manifestations of the remix culture. Many hip-hop activists have argued that sampling has always been a part of hip hop. Taking someone else’s art, and creatively transforming and rearranging the sounds into something else. In the late 1980’s sampling was common; often, MCs sampled a snare or a kick drum, which helped them to create new music. When hip hop began to emerge, it was simple, two turntables and a microphone was all that was needed. But new technology creates new ethical and legal questions. Over time, improved sampling technology allowed artists to develop the rap/hip hop genre, giving them the ability to rearrange various beats and melodies.

Tarik Bradford, an employee at Universal Music Group, and my former supervisor at Warner Music Group, commented on sampling and the hip hop culture. "Samples are probably the biggest problem that comes up when anyone is trying to license Hip Hop. Most early Hip Hop from about 1980-1990 is filled with uncleared samples. Most people didn't start legally clearing samples until the early 90's so usually whenever we would license Hip Hop from the 80's we would have to do it on a quitclaim basis which basically means we don't know if their are illegal samples in the song but if so the company that we are licensing the music to is responsible for any lawsuits that may occur. Since most film companies and ad agencies don't want to take that chance a lot of Hip Hop from that era goes unlicensed. Even now when songs have legal samples it's still a pain for music supervisors because it's time consuming to track down all of the songwriters that might be in one song with 2 or 3 samples. Even today it's still by far the most difficult music to clear for licensing."

In the early 1990s Biz Markie, a rap artist under the Warner Bros. label, sampled music without permission and was successfully sued. In 1992 Biz Markie released his album, "I Need A Haircut." While the album received great reviews, his song "Alone Again," went under scrutiny for sampling a substantial portion of music from Gilbert O’Sullivan’s 1972 hit "Alone Again (Naturally)." This case is known as Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records Inc. According to Benedict.com, Biz Markie initially tried to get a sample license from the copyright holder of "Alone Again (Naturally)," who was Gilbert O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan declined, but Biz Markie sampled his musical work anyway. As previously mentioned, sampling was common in the 1980s and early 1990s, and asking for permission to use someone else’s copyrighted work was rare. As a result, O’Sullivan sued Biz Markie for copyright infringement and their judge, Kevin Duffy, order an injunction against Biz Markie. This changed hip hop and the overall music industry because it was the one of the first cases to address the legality of the common practice of sampling. This case also required that any future music sampling was to be approved by the original copyright owners to avoid a lawsuit.

Click here to listen to "Alone Again" and "Alone Again (Naturally)"
Biz Markie and Gilbert O' Sullivan Sound Clips

Since Gilbert O’Sullivan was the copyright holder of "Alone Again (Naturally)," he had the distribution and reproduction rights to the song, as well as the right to prepare derivative works. Therefore, the sampling of his song by Biz Markie, without Gilbert O’ Sullivan’s permission, is illegal.

One of the few defenses against the penalization for sampling and copyright infringement is Fair Use, which is based on the idea that certain unlicensed uses of copyrighted work are justifiable. These used include: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and research. In addition there is currently a non-profit organization, Creative Commons which provides alternative copyright licensing such as some rights reserved (allows you to keep your copyright while allowing certain uses of your work), and no rights reserved (allows you to share your work). Creative Commons also offers six different licenses to choose from when publishing your work that differentiates by the guidelines to which you are allowing others to copy, distribute, share, display, or perform your work.

Today, the remix culture is more popular than ever, especially in rap/hip hop music. There is still a grey area in terms of defining the amount of seconds, words, or musical notes you can sample from another song without it being classified as stealing or copyright infringement. Some artists believe that sampling any amount of the song is copyright infringement, and others believe that it can be considered a violation of an artists’ copyright depending on the portion of the sample taken from the song.

Click here to check out some more popular sampled songs!
8 Most Over-Used Samples In Hip Hop History

Mass Customization: Nike iD and Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ

Nike iD’s main page has a simple look with bright colors, but it’s a bit difficult to navigate and understand because it’s clutter with a variety of options to choose from. The opening page has an athletic theme and refers to your shopping cart as my locker, and another feature known as the team locker. At the team locker you can design, share, rate, and customize your shoe based on your favorite sports team. Other features included on the homepage are two of the major shoes that Nike allows you to customize. The Zoom Kobe IV iD shoe and the Nike Air Morgan iD shoe. When you click on the Kobe IV iD shoe icon, it allows you to choose shoes previously customized to match certain sports teams colors, or you can start from scratch and create your own unique shoe. As you go through the proper steps, you can choose from an array of colors to customize each part of the shoe to your unique style. At the bottom of the page the website gives an overview of each part of the Kobe IV iD shoe, the technology used, and the inspiration for the shoe and its overall features. This gives the consumer insightful knowledge of the shoe they are personalizing. It also gives them the option to customize another type of shoe, the Nike Air Morgan iD. This has many of the same features as the Kobe IV iD shoe. While these features give you different ways to customize your shoe, it’s difficult to find out how exactly how to go about doing so and to also keep the consumer entertained. Also included on the homepage of the website are a variety of popular Nike shoes as well as athletic ones to select from and also customize. The most interactive feature of the website is the Studios icon. This is where consumers can make an appointment at either Niketown or Nike Sportswear 21 located in New York City to get a one-on-one session with studio design consultant and obtain the experience of creating their own shoe at a store. This also features a video of the rapper Ludacris at the Niketown NY studio discussing a Nike iD signature series contest. Overall the Nike iD website gives you several options to customize your shoe, but has parts that are easily ignorable and difficult to navigate through.


The opening page on the Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ site it is aesthetically pleasing and inviting with a lot of vivid colors, pop-out icons, and a very excited chef! The idea of using the Mongolian BBQ and comparing that to customizing your own shoe is something that makes this site unique, distinctive, and interesting. They take this theme and use it throughout the site by calling your shopping cart a doggie bag, and describing their new shoes as the daily special. It also gives a description of the Mongolian BBQ and how this relates to creating your personal shoe. Some other options included are designing your own shoe in the store, subscribing to the website, and starting your own shoe on the website. When you click on the icon, start new shoe, it continues with the theme by using menus as options for shoe styles. It takes you through an easy step-by-step process to choose the style of your shoe, the size, and the option of customizing by either starting from a blank shoe or shoes that already have selected from previous styles, referred to as a customer recipe. When designing your custom shoe, the Puma Mongolian shoe BBQ site has detailed features you can use, but not a variety of colors. After creating the shoe you can email it to a friend, buy it online, or buy it in a puma store. Overall the Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ site uses creativity, simple yet sophisticated navigation tools, and vivid and animated colors which make it more appealing to the eye and an enjoyable experience for the consumer when customizing their shoe.


Compared to the Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ, Nike iD is a lot more complicated to navigate, a bit out of date in terms of the technology, and not nearly as interactive or attention grabbing. Although the Nike iD site gives the consumer detailed information about the shoes and offers more options of the types of shoes, as well as the selection of colors you can choose from, the homepage is too cluttered. The homepage is the most important part of a website. The Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ site uses modern technology to generate the best consumer experience by creating a Mongolian BBQ themed website and relating it to the idea of customizing shoes, which is both innovative and original. It also creates a more personalized experience for the consumer by making the site aesthetically pleasing and easy and fun to navigate through.