Sampling: Copyright Criminals (Doc)

Here’s the rundown on Copyright Criminals (2009):

Basics
Directed and produced by Benjamin Franzen, written based on Kembrew McLeod’s book, running 54 minutes. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2009, then aired nationally in the US on January 18, 2010, on PBS’s Independent Lens series. It was funded by the Ford Foundation, University of Iowa, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

What it’s about
The film examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and money. It frames sampling as hip-hop’s original form of “audio montage” — something musicians perfected as an art long before ordinary people started making video mashups online. The framing device is that once record industry lawyers got involved, what used to be called a “borrowed melody” became “copyright infringement.”

Who’s in it
It features founding hip-hop figures like Public Enemy, De La Soul, and Digital Underground, plus newer artists like the audiovisual remix group Eclectic Method. A particularly notable throughline: it includes first-person interviews with sampled artists themselves — like Clyde Stubblefield, James Brown’s drummer and the most sampled musician in history — alongside commentary from funk legend George Clinton, another heavily sampled artist. Stubblefield in particular comes across as at peace with being sampled endlessly without compensation, saying he’s happy others use his work, though he does note some gratitude would’ve been nice. Other credited voices include Aesop Rock, Steve Albini, and Harry Allen, plus Chuck D, El-P, Sage Francis, Mix Master Mike, Prefuse 73, and DJ Q-Bert.