You cannot copyright a bassline or a rhythm. The copyright of a song resides in the combination of chord progression + lyric + melody.
However, lets not forget that a sample is a digital copy of a recording. If you admit to sampling then you essentially infringe up to three copyrights (of the record company, the publisher and the artist).
Therefore, replaying a riff is ok. Sampling it isn't.
And just wait till the Dre/Truth Hurts case reaches it's conlusion. He didn't use a short sample...he used 4 minutes of it. And that is just plain stoopid.
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You cannot copyright a bassline or a rhythm. The copyright of a song resides in the combination of chord progression + lyric + melody.
However, lets not forget that a sample is a digital copy of a recording. If you admit to sampling then you essentially infringe up to three copyrights (of the record company, the publisher and the artist).
Therefore, replaying a riff is ok. Sampling it isn't.
And just wait till the Dre/Truth Hurts case reaches it's conlusion. He didn't use a short sample...he used 4 minutes of it. And that is just plain stoopid.
Where there's a hit there's a writ!