I know a lot of people won't take the time to sit through this, at least not right a way, but I encourage you to do so, the next time you have twenty minutes to spare to learn about the Amen Break, it's use in early hip-hop, then jungle, and drum and bass music, and whether or not it's repeated use by likely hundreds of thousands of musicians by this point is legal or not despite it still being copyrighted and not in public domain.
In 2004 Nate Harrison put together an art installation project that consisted of a turntable and pa system, paired up with a pressing he had made with the recording you will find in the youtube video below. There was also paper documents nearby that people could look through while listening to the recording.
"Can I Get An Amen? is an audio installation that unfolds a critical perspective of perhaps the most sampled drum beat in the history of recorded music, the Amen Break. It begins with the pop track Amen Brother by 60's soul band The Winstons, and traces the transformation of their drum solo from its original context as part of a 'B' side vinyl single into its use as a key aural ingredient in contemporary cultural expression. The work attempts to bring into scrutiny the techno-utopian notion that 'information wants to be free'- it questions its effectiveness as a democratizing agent. This as well as other issues are foregrounded through a history of the Amen Break and its peculiar relationship to current copyright law."
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