Washington, D.C.— On Thursday, March 31, Duke University Press will release Creative License: The Law of Culture and Digital Sampling, a compelling new book that explores the complexities and contradictions in how music samples are licensed within the current copyright landscape.  Including interviews with more than 100 stakeholders in the sampling community – from David Byrne, Cee-Lo Green, George Clinton, De La Soul, DJ Premier, DJ Qbert, Eclectic Method, El-P, Girl Talk, Matmos, Mix Master Mike, Negativland, Public Enemy, RZA, Clyde Stubblefield and T.S. Monk – Creative License puts digital sampling into an historical, cultural, and legal context.

Creative License on Duke University Press

Official Creative License website

FMC’s Creative License page

Future of Music Coalition (FMC) is proud to collaborate with the authors and Duke University Press to celebrate the release of Creative License. FMC’s history of engagement on issues at the intersection of music, technology and copyright include organizing public discussions about music sampling. In September 2008, FMC curated “Creative License: a Conversation About Music, Sampling and Fair Use” — a panel discussion at the Public Theater in NYC featuring Kembrew McLeod, Columbia University’s June M. Besek, American University Law School’s Peter Jaszi, artist and label owner EL-P and musician T.S. Monk. Earlier that same year, FMC and Pitchfork Music Festival co-hosted a conversation at the Chicago Cultural Center between McLeod and Chuck D, Hank Shocklee and Keith Shocklee (Public Enemy; The  Bomb Squad) and journalist/activist Harry Allen. In 2009, FMC hosted a panel at the Future of Music Policy Summit in Washington DC with DiCola, McLeod and a host of experts and practitioners. In each case, FMC has made an effort to include perspectives of different stakeholders and discuss remedies that balance creativity, compensation and control.

To coincide with the release of Creative License, Peter DiCola (Assistant Professor of Law at Northwestern University) and Kembrew McLeod (documentary filmmaker and media professor at the University of Iowa) will be speaking at a number of locations around the country:

Friday, April 8: Peter DiCola at University of Michigan School of Law, Madison, WI

Saturday, April 16: Peter DiCola at Busboys and Poets, Washington, DC

Monday, April 18: Peter DiCola at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA

Tuesday, April 19: Peter DiCola at Junto at P’unk Ave in Philadelphia, PA

Wednesday, April 20: Peter DiCola at Drexel University Music Industry Program in Philadelphia, PA

Tuesday, April 26: Peter DiCola and Kembrew McLeod at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City, IA

Official events schedule

Creative License describes hip-hop during its sample-heavy golden age in the 1980s and early 1990s; the lawsuits that shaped U.S. copyright law on sampling; and the labyrinthine licensing process that musicians must now navigate. Observing that the same dynamics creating problems for remixers now reverberate throughout all culture industries, the authors conclude by examining ideas for reform.
 
The scope of questions asked by McLeod and DiCola portray the intricacies of digital sampling: How did the Depression-era folk-song collector Alan Lomax end up with a songwriting credit on Jay-Z’s song “Takeover?” Why doesn’t Clyde Stubblefield, the primary drummer on James Brown recordings from the late 1960s like “Funky Drummer” and “Cold Sweat,” get paid for other musicians’ frequent use of the beats he performed on those songs? By examining music industry and artist responses to these cases and more, Creative License brings important perspective to a persistent issue in modern music culture.

About the Authors
Kembrew McLeod is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property and Owning Culture: Authorship, Ownership, and Intellectual Property Law, and co-creator of the documentary film Copyright Criminals.

Peter DiCola is Assistant Professor at Northwestern University School of Law. He is a board member and former Research Director of the Future of Music Coalition.

About Duke University Press
Duke University Press, internationally recognized as a prominent publisher of books and journals, publishes approximately 120 books annually and over 40 journals, as well as offering five electronic collections. The Press publishes primarily in the humanities and social sciences and is known as a publisher willing to take chances with nontraditional and interdisciplinary publications.