Sound bite: Is sampling fair use?

Where’s the line between creative experimentation and theft? That’s the question at the heart of a lawsuit between Tracy Chapman and Nicki Minaj over whether the act of sampling a song in the studio constitutes copyright infringement.

Where’s the line between creative experimentation and theft? That’s the question at the heart of a lawsuit between Tracy Chapman and Nicki Minaj over whether the act of sampling a song in the studio constitutes copyright infringement.

Sampling is a decades-old technique, but one which in recent years has become integral to the creative process of some of the world’s most popular artists.

Clearing samples with the original copyright owners is now standard procedure in many major album releases, especially for hip-hop and pop music. If artists fail to obtain permission to use a sample, it can delay album releases or force them to cut a song from the tracklist.