The video Copyright Criminals, produced by Benjamin Franzen and Kembrew McLeod, offers a stimulating introduction to debates about intellectual property laws and their enforcement with regard to musical sampling. It includes interviews from musicians (from members of Public Enemy to Steve Albini) and scholars who have a variety of views regarding sampling and originality in music. Students in my media literacy class really enjoyed this video, and it helped spur an animated discussion. For students not familiar with scratching, sampling, and late 1980s and early 1990s hip-hop, this video also provides an interesting introduction to new sounds and ideas.
I do not believe the video is available online (though maybe on iTunes), but here’s a link to its homepage: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/copyright-criminals/ . If your institution won’t purchase it, the video is available from netflix.
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