What are the ethics of sampling and borrowing?
We hear often of cases of musicians suing others for using their music. There is even one case where a band was sued for using a two-second guitar chord from another band.
Beyond the legal ramifications, what are the ethical standards of using all or part of what someone else has created? Some may argue that all creativity is borrowed, others that it is vital to protect the creators of new work. Do we own what we create? Are there ways to “borrow respectfully” and if so, what forms can this take? If not, are legal means the only way forward? If you are not a musician, how do you approach issues of sampling, borrowing or copying in your discipline?
Beyond the legal ramifications, what are the ethical standards of using all or part of what someone else has created? Some may argue that all creativity is borrowed, others that it is vital to protect the creators of new work. Do we own what we create? Are there ways to “borrow respectfully” and if so, what forms can this take? If not, are legal means the only way forward? If you are not a musician, how do you approach issues of sampling, borrowing or copying in your discipline?
Tags: artist, artists, borrowing, copyright, culture, ethical, legal, sampling
Replies to This Post
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Permalink Reply by Marie Kazalia on -
Fair Use, determined by courts in a legal dispute relates to how the one using has caused loss of income. There was a case in which a photographer sued Jeff Koons for using his postcard pic, and won.
Often it is a matter of how nice the person "borrowed from" is, or if they see it as a compliment or enhancement to their career to have their work obviously included in the work of another, or if they know the other. Collage and mail art artists send (gift) work to each other and that then gets incorporated into the collage artists work, which expands the fame of both (in a recent book on Collage Art and a NYC gallery exhibit). Might as well make it collaboration, if possible. The lawyers makes less that way.
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Permalink Reply by Nico Daswani on -
Very interesting Marie, as collaboration brings up new issues and blurs the lines of ownership even more. I see this gifting you talk about in music a lot, with web sites where people put up their music for it to be used, mashed up and then gifted back etc... This process is not always equal though and some world music tracks have wonderfully diverse sounds but often how those sounds were acquired can be questionable- and it is more appropriation than collaboration. I blogged about this a while back. Still though, the world of the Creative Commons is fascinating and helping redraw some of these copyright lines.
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Permalink Reply by Laurel Anderson on
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I use art for inspiration. I will spend hours looking at rug sites to get ideas for my hand painted rugs, to see color combination, design arrangements and incorporate those into my own interpretations. For many years I had a hand painted cotton knit clothing line. I trained girls in my community to draw and paint these dresses. One young woman quit and went on to make her own hand painted tshirts using the techniques I taught her and I felt pretty proud that I had taught her some skills and applauded her for going independent . I did not feel like it was a detriment to my own business, until I discovered she stole my drawings and copied my designs. At first I felt hurt, then I realized I was the artist and she made product that was obviously "copied" and so I drew all new designs, better, more beautiful designs. So this experience actually inspired me to celebrate my talent and not get mired in resentment.
Art is art and as varied as food and tastes are just as varied. I do not feel we own what we create, that is why creation exists, to give it up.
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Permalink Reply by claudia roulier on
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It's hard to copy someone and not make it your own unless it is a direct lift and in which case then there would be a problem. Copying style is a part of being an artist in that many artists refer to themselves as influenced by or studying under.......and that's been going on for eons.
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Permalink Reply by Gail Troutman on -
I feel pretty strongly against borrowing of any kind. My conscience hurts. I'm afraid to look at the work of other artists (which is something I really need to work on) for fear that I may copy in some way. If I work from a photograph it has to be my photograph, and I even feel guilty about that. That being said, I have outright COPIED a work of art and as long as I don't sell, it, sign it, or claim it to be mine in anyway I'm fine with that. I see it, like it, want it, can't afford it, so make it myself with no guilt.
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Permalink Reply by charles stroh on -
Visual Arts: Even as we are born, we have certain imprinted inclinations that we call genetic. As we grow and learn, additional impressions are experienced, some consciously, even more unconsciously. Consider this: You are talking on the telephone with a friend. You had been watching a TV program when the telephone rang and that program is still running while you talk. The radio in the kitchen is playing and there is a pot of stew cooking on the stove. It is late afternoon and the sun is lower in the sky, so it is casting shadows in the family room and those shadows are moving around since there is a little wind blowing the trees about. One of your kids comes in the front door and yells, hi mom, and heads to her room. All this happens simultaneously. All of this is an influence of one sort or another. When we draw on our resources for our work, we may have the idea that we are doing something unique, and to some extent, we probably are. But, we have had so many prior experiences with things that are in some dusty closet of our mind, that we can never really be sure that we haven't seen something like this before. We often talk about creativity as though it is something independent of experience. I tend to think that isn't so. We've forgotten or displaced far, far more than we know or remember.
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Permalink Reply by Larry Ogan on
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Picasso said, "Young artists are influenced. Mature artists steal".
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Permalink Reply by Gail Troutman on
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Who in hell did HE steal from, I wonder??
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Matisse said he would hide his new work when Picasso was coming for a visit.
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Permalink Reply by cheryl gravitt on -
I think that's funny! :>)
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Permalink Reply by Gail Troutman on
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Ohhhh! That gives me the chills.
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Permalink Reply by Wayne Harjula on -
I see copying as copying, nothing more, for me nature shows the unexpected, go study the world around you, micro or macro, there's a lifetime of influence, turn off the tv/media and use your gift of interpretation and vision for who you want to become today.I have been copied beyond belief, I would like some compensation, but I watched many other relatives spend large chunks of their life under stress and fear with a promise of law returning some payment, know any good lawyers for the arts? I'll still live and create until I'm to decrepit, then tell stories like my old man of the big picture...love your life, it will love you back.Enough already. Wayne
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