Kronos Choirs User Bank

[.Jens]

If by definition you are saying that is wrong, then that makes Spectrasonics, Native Instruments, IK Multimedia, etc. ALL guilty of copyright violations. How can you hold end-users accountable for not copying other peoples samples when software companies do it all the time? I still don't understand the logic behind "it's okay to sample a vintage keyboard but not a Motif."

It is only "wrong" if you sample and redistribute the original samples without permission. You might consider that a serious software company will properly license any foreign content - that's not for free, usually, but possible.
Regarding the mellotron, I am not really sure about it. There might be license conditions which allow to sample it, the ancillary copyright might also be expired in the meantime - in Europe I think it lasts "only" 50 years.
And after all, the companies who sold the mellotrons are all void now. In the special case of ancillary copyright, which is not necessarily a personal right, but can also belong to a company, this might result in "orphaned" rights - a difficult topic.

After all, the Mellotron is a bad example to conclude from...

[xpi0t0s]

...Spectrasonics has Mellotron samples in their products too. If by definition you are saying that is wrong, then that makes Spectrasonics, Native Instruments, IK Multimedia, etc. ALL guilty of copyright violations.

Correct....IF they don't have permission from the copyright holder. If you dig into it you'll probably find there's a commercial license in there somewhere. I'm pretty sure NI for example will have paid whoever owns the Mellotrn copyright an appropriate licence fee to be able to use their samples.

How can you hold end-users accountable for not copying other peoples samples when software companies do it all the time? I still don't understand the logic behind "it's okay to sample a vintage keyboard but not a Motif."

If you *really* don't understand that then take this simple rule: don't sample *anything*. But I think you probably do understand it and are trying to get round the licence. If you want to sample an instrument and redistribute those samples as a sample library, you should contact the instrument maker and check if that is OK.

On a similar vein, I record a CD which uses KARMA GE's. Am I violating copyright because Stephen Kay created KARMA?

Depends if you're creating original musical compositions with KARMA or if you're recording the output of KARMA directly so that people can avoid buying the product. I haven't checked the KARMA licence but I'm pretty sure as with most music technology you have the copyright holder's permission to create original musical compositions.

Do I need to credit his work and contribution to my recordings?

If you don't know then RTFM. If you still don't know then just ask him; he seems quite approachable on the Karma forum and I'm sure would be perfectly happy to clarify. I'm getting bored with quoting...

>>I'll be happy to oblige if need be but if I download the Assault package that James did and is sold on Korg's site, can I not use those Combis in my music?

Again if you are acting in line with the rights the copyright holder has given you then you are fine. If you are not then you are not fine.

>>Or is this a violation as well. Just needing some clarification here. And I realize copyrights are different around the world. I'm in the US so how does this all apply to me?

They are not significantly different. Copyright is the RIGHT to COPY, hence the name. You either have it or you don't. In law you are generally automatically assumed to have the copyright if it is your own creation. If you don't then you have no rights to do anything with the product in question and if you make any money from violating those rights then the copyright holder has the right to sue your ass off. Check the licence and if you're still not sure then ask the copyright holder.

Copyright law basically states that you have the right to copy your own stuff but you don't have the right to copy other people's stuff, except where they explicitly grant you permissions. The makers of sample libraries generally understand the difficulty with copyright and music creation and so when you purchase those libraries you will usually find something in the manual that says what you can do with them (because by default the copyright law will prevent musicians creating musical content with sample libraries, because that does involve copying those samples).