Creating Songs Using Audio Clips From Movies

[bryan jordan]

To begin, I am new to music production and I don't know too much about the law. I figured it would be best to get the question out there before I start sending my music out to labels and end up getting sued or something on the lines of it. To be honest, I'm just guessing on it concerning the whole "fair use" thing, and would really like to be educated on the whole matter of what concerns are brought up in this topic.

The question:
I have this song that has audio clips from a movie. The audio clip consists of about 5-10 words and is pitched down quite a bit to better fit the sound of the song. If I were to send this song to a label and lets say they signed it and it started to be sold, would this be breaking any law?


I have a copy of the original audio clip and a copy of the song if needed.

[Mr. Knowitall]

The label will want to be sure that they are authorized to use the sampled works before proceeding. They may be willing to try to do that themselves, but it would likely be better if you had authorization when approaching them. Note, authorization in this era needs to be broad enough to permit online performance, sales and downloads.

[bryan jordan]

Would I be better off recording the sample myself with my own voice? Or would that be breaking a copyright law as well?

[Mr. Knowitall]

The question then turns on whether you're recording something that's subject to copyright by virtue of the script. The more recognizable the material, the more likely that's an issue. Phrases that are short enough aren't subject to copyright, but I'm not in a position to define the threshold of "short enough" in terms of your plan. Here's the official position:

Under section 102 of the Copyright Act (title 17 of the U. S. Code), copyright protection extends only to “original works of authorship.” The statute states clearly that ideas and concepts cannot be protected by copyright. To be protected by copyright, a work must contain a certain minimum amount of authorship in the form of original literary, musical, pictorial, or graphic expression. Names, titles, and other short phrases do not meet these requirements.