Hey guys -

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here - I haven’t forget about mixter or anything! Just been busy :-)

I was wondering if all the samples on this site can be used for the Copyright Criminals remix contest or not. I’m wanting to use some of the Magnatune samples and maybe some of the Wired CD samples for this contest - is that kosher? I remember there was some sort of stipulation that some of the licenses couldn’t be synced to picture (isn’t that just the sampling plus and the nc sampling plus?), and since this is possibly going on a film I just wanted to make sure…also I wasn’t sure if the nc samples could be used on something that’s going to be re-sold.

Anyway, I’m just trying to clarify what can and can’t be used in the contest, so anybody that can help please let me know.

Thanks!

Tim

(I’m not a lawyer and nothing I say should be taken as legal adivse)

I think anything marked ‘ attribution’ should be safe.

Sampling and ShareAlike type licenses are, er, problematic so you should probably stay clear.

VS

After a few email exchanges with CC law staff here some guidelines for the Criminals contest:

1) Contest entries must use the “ official contest entry form" (only registered, signed users can see this form) — any upload not using this form is not considered a contest entry.

2) the official contest source samples can only be used in the contest entries. Non entry uploads to the site that contain these samples will have to be removed.

3) In fact, those samples can not be used in any remix or any other purpose, anywhere in the world except as source material for a contest entry. (These samples will be removed from the site after the contest is closed)

4) The only samples from this site that are allowed to be part of your entry are marked as “ attribution” (BY) (as I write this there are 692 uploads including many ZIP archives with multiple samples).

NOTE: as of yesterday the the contest submission form now includes a ‘I used samples from’ search ability so you can specify on upload which samples from this site you used.

HOWEVER: we currently don’t have a way to “restrict” which samples you use in the actual remix so on upload it’s basically the “honor system.” If however, the remix is found to use illegal samples (i.e. more restricted than Attribution) then that entry is automatically disqualified from the contest.

5) Samples that you created or otherwise have permission to use (e.g. public domain or license free loop/sample libraries) are OK to use in the contest.

6) Because the contest entries contain samples from the movie, technically, you are NOT supposed to remix the entries and post them to the site as remixes (i.e. non-contest entries)

Even weirder: Technically you can remix OTHER contest entries and submit them as entries but it is unclear as to WHO the actual WINNER would be in that case… I still need to clear this up with legal…

Remember, if you break any of these rules you are, er, a copyright criminal. (irony intentional)

Peace,
Victor

Hey Vic -

Thanks for tracking all this down for us…but just to clarify, that means that samples from Magnatune can’t be used since they are attribution-Non Commercial and only strict Attribution licenses can be used?

And what’s the point of a non-profit releasing a documentary about sampling when you can’t hardly use any samples in the music? :-)

Tim

Quote: Thanks for tracking all this down for us…but just to clarify, that means that samples from Magnatune can’t be used since they are attribution-Non Commercial and only strict Attribution licenses can be used?

NonCommercial is still being debated (but personally I would avoid it — again, not legal advice, just me talkin)

Either way, ShareAlike kills the Magnatune stuff since the rules strictly state the entry must be licensed as BY-NC.

Quote: And what’s the point of a non-profit releasing a documentary about sampling when you can’t hardly use any samples in the music? :-)

Well, if the non-profit you’re talking about is CC then I can tell you they have nothing to do with the movie, it’s being made by a couple guys totally on their own — and I’m not sure if the end product (the movie) will be non or for profit.

Regarding the rest of your question: let’s just say more than one person put the contest together. let’s also say that not all persons in the world see eye to eye on everything. ;)

VS

Quote: After a few email exchanges with CC law staff here some guidelines for the Criminals contest:

1) Contest entries must use the “ official contest entry form" (only registered, signed users can see this form) — any upload not using this form is not considered a contest entry.

2) the official contest source samples can only be used in the contest entries. Non entry uploads to the site that contain these samples will have to be removed.

3) In fact, those samples can not be used in any remix or any other purpose, anywhere in the world except as source material for a contest entry. (These samples will be removed from the site after the contest is closed)

4) The only samples from this site that are allowed to be part of your entry are marked as “ attribution” (BY) (as I write this there are 692 uploads including many ZIP archives with multiple samples).

NOTE: as of yesterday the the contest submission form now includes a ‘I used samples from’ search ability so you can specify on upload which samples from this site you used.

HOWEVER: we currently don’t have a way to “restrict” which samples you use in the actual remix so on upload it’s basically the “honor system.” If however, the remix is found to use illegal samples (i.e. more restricted than Attribution) then that entry is automatically disqualified from the contest.

5) Samples that you created or otherwise have permission to use (e.g. public domain or license free loop/sample libraries) are OK to use in the contest.

6) Because the contest entries contain samples from the movie, technically, you are NOT supposed to remix the entries and post them to the site as remixes (i.e. non-contest entries)

Even weirder: Technically you can remix OTHER contest entries and submit them as entries but it is unclear as to WHO the actual WINNER would be in that case… I still need to clear this up with legal…

Remember, if you break any of these rules you are, er, a copyright criminal. (irony intentional)

Peace,
Victor

Is it me or did the whole premise of the movie just became entirely too hypocritical?

Leave it to the legal folks to take the fun out of it. There are those who love it because it’s art and those who love it because they can make money off of it. I wonder if the legal folks made De La Soul, Mixmaster Mike, and DJ Spooky all sign waivers saying that the recorded interviews were sole property of CC or the film makers or whoever…

This contest just took on a whole new meaning.

I got a question for the legal folks…

What protection do I have as an artist that the instrumental version of the track I make is mine and not property of anyone else?

None of those rules were posted in the contest rules I downloaded and I read that shit word for word. I joined this looking for a dope remix contest, not a legal battle. Ima shut up now for I get lawyers sending me “cease and desists”.

Licensing a track under a Creative Commons license (which all entries are) means you retain overall ownership of the content (copyright). The Attribution-NonCommercial (BY-NC) license specifically means that you allow things like file-sharing but prohibit things like commercial use.

Details of the BY-NC license are here.

This is contest is slightly different than what we usually do here because the contest samples are not under a CC license — that’s not typical for us so it’s a lot more restricted than we’re used to.

Hope that helps.

VS

the source files for the contest contain some music…djs scratching and beats beeing cut on a turntable….i am right in saying, that it would be smarter leaving those files out….?

All the rules apply to all the source samples equally — whatever the content, talking, scratching, itching…

makes sense?

well,i was just wondering, because, watching the provided video, you can cleaey see the djs working with vinly records….and i kinda doubted, that those were released under a cc licence…..but, so i’ll just think, that they cleared all thoses issues before releasing the
contest files…

I was trying to be as clear as I can — the contest samples are NOT released under CC, that’s why there’s all these whacky restrictions on them. They can NOT be used for anything EXCEPT the contest. They will be removed from this site after the contest deadline for entries has passed.

yikes…that looks like some serious admin work. Especially when processed sample packs are being uploaded that aren’t actual entries in the contest

Quote: yikes…that looks like some serious admin work.

heh. just another day at the mixter corrall.

VS

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread. I was collating all the licensing info for a mashup EP that I was about to post to CCMixter and came across this thread. Now I’m totally confused.

All the tracks I’ve sampled (except one… have contacted the author about this) are licensed under BY or BY-NC licenses, including a few from the Copyright Criminals contest (according to their CCMixter webpages). How could they do this if there are additional restrictions on their usage in derivative works? Does this mean they’re _not_ actually licensed under such conditions, and I’m not allowed to sample them? Talk about irony.