Copyright law is designed to protect the rights of artists. When an artist, whether it be a musician, a journalist, a playwrite, a painter or a filmmaker creates a body of work he/she has the rights to protect his/her intellectual property. Copyright law is enacted in two main forms; firstly against pirates who illegally copy works such as compact discs, books, articles, artwork, photographs,etc. and secondly against other artists who may make unauthorised use of the original work.

Recent advances in technology mean that the protection of the rights of artists is becoming increasingly difficult. Machines such as samplers allow other musicians to effectively steal a portion of a piece of music. Thus ideas that are the property of the artist are being used without consent and most likely not used to the original intent of the creator. Musicians make the bulk of their income from the sales of their recorded works. Newer, cheaper laser technologies allow individuals to copy and make compact discs from their home computer and sell them as bootlegs, thus eroding the income of the artist who actually recorded the work. The digital technology of the compact disc also allows the pirate to make an infinte number of copies without losing any sound quality whatsoever. Likewise the renting of recorded works allow individuals to hire the compact disc for a minimal cost and make their own compact disc copy. Renting of recorded music deprives the artist of his/her rightful income.

Musicians who copy a melody or a few lines of the lyrics from another artist's work are effectively stealing the intellectual property of the original artist. Whilst it is perfectly legal to sound similar to another musician, it is illegal to use their songs or parts thereof without the permission of the original artist. Thus samples violate the rights of the original artist to protect their work. Quite often samples are taken from music without the express consent of the original artist. Recent trends in dance music indicate that this problem is only doing to get worse. New styles of dance music, techno, chemical beats, hip hop, and the like are based around the illegitimate use of the work of others. Pop Will Eat Itself have effectively stolen most of the sound that make up their music. The KLF made millions of dollars from the theft of songs and music from the artists who originally created them. Whilst bands such as these get rich the rightful authors recieve no reward.

INDEX

The Simpsons	Ulysses	John Wayne	Facial Recognition	Post Structuralism	1950's Pulp Novels
Copyright	Sampling	Pulp Fiction	Salvador Dali	Rhizomes	Post Modernism

/A>