Just announced on Tuesday by The Future of Music Coalition is the release through Duke University Press of the long-in-the-works book “Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling“. The book seems to be a bit the textbook companion to the 2009 filmCopyright Criminals, which co-author Kembrew McLeod was the co-creator of. You might have caught that on PBS a couple years back. I’m very eager to grab this book, which seems like it will be available any second now (Amazon says released on March 3rd but they don’t have it in stock yet). It seems like a lot to pack into 300 pages. Additional contributors are Kristin Thomson &Jenny Toomey of Washington D.C.’s Positive Force, Simple Machines Records and theMechanics Guide to Putting Out Records. Thompson and Toomey have also held key roles at the Future of Music Coalition (and you thought this whole punk rock thing would never amount to much!).

Interviewees include: Steve Albini, Craig Baldwin, David Byrne, Chuck D, Qbert, Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, TradeMark Gunderson of Evolution Control Committee, Miho Hatori from Cibo Matto, Mark Hosler from Negativland, Wyclef Jean, Kid 606, Killah Priest, Kool Keith, Lady Miss Kier, Mix Master Mike, Thurston Moore, Yoko Ono, Prefuse 73, RJD2, RZA, Scanner, Hank Shocklee, Steinski, Clyde Stubblefield, Rick Prelinger, Tom Silverman, Brian Zisk, Shoshana Zisk, Harry Allen, Jeff Chang, Lawrence Lessig, and Greg Tate.