No Rock And Roll Fun

NOW ALL SAMPLING IS STEALING: An odd decision by a federal appeals court has declared that all sampling has to be paid for, even if the sample is so brief that it's unrecognisable - if you pick a single note from a song, then you have to the pay person who played that single note. Observers are trying politely to suggest that the judge who declared this has lost his tiny little mind:

"It seems a little extreme to me," said James Van Hook, dean of Belmont University's Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. "When something is identifiable, that is the key."

The case that has set this scary precedent is based on a two-second, pitch-lowered, looped and extended sample from George Clinton and Funkadelic used in NWA's 100 Miles and Runnin.