Anyway, thought I'd write another blog into the ether of the interwebs in hopes of entertaining a few passing strangers. I've said this before, but I will say it again. I aim to write in this daily from now on. I mean it, guys! Don't try and stop me!
Today I was reading a new instruction book that I bought. I buy many instruction books about all sorts of topics with the good intentions of saying "THIS will make me awesome! I'll buy this book on car maintenance, become a mechanic and then become filthy stinking rich! YEAH!"
Then I abandon the book and play some video games or watch Lost. By the way, I'm currently watching ALL of Lost, right from the beginning. I've made it to Season 4 but I haven't seen any of Seasons 5 or 6. So if anyone DARES tell me what happens in those seasons, expect to wake up dead tomorrow. Yes, you heard me.
Anyway, yes. Tangents. I buy instruction books and then forget about them shortly afterwards. Recently I bought a book called The Remixer's Bible: Build Better Beats, because I'd like to think I have the capabilities of being a fantastic music producer despite having about as much understanding of music theory as a polar bear understands how to make a cocktail.
In this book, there was a section on sampling and the legal wrangles that occur, namely "sample anything copyrighted and the RIAA will kill your entire family, but if you're British the BPI will just tut at you disapprovingly then call the hounds on you". Not quite in those words, but you get the idea. Amusingly, it mentioned that Chrissie Hynde gave Garbage full permission to her ass once, which naturally will get real person fanfic writers writing Chrissie Hynde x Shirley Manson erotica, but whatever.
The important thing is, it got me thinking about copyright law. No rants, it actually raised an interesting question in my mind.
Is the Shipping Forecast under copyright?
The Shipping Forecast, for those who don't know, is the ultimate chillout broadcast. Basically, BBC Radio 4, at some crazy hour of the morning, broadcast the sound of a very posh man/woman reading out place names in a very soothing rhythm in order to help people get to sleep. Also, apparently it helps sailors not die horribly in a storm or something, but that's not important. The important thing is that it's so soothing and amazing that it's been sampled and referenced by a range of musicians from Blur to Kate Bush to....that other guy. Yeah. His version was the best.
But my point is, if you sampled it, would you have to get permission from Auntie Beeb? Or because it's issued by The Maritime And Coastguard Agency (they're a government department involved in helping sailors not die in a horrible boating accident or something, but that's not important), does this make it publicly-owned? I know that government issued
Does anyone know? Seriously, this is important. My life depends on knowing the answer to this. Help me!
In other news, I'm unofficially participating in NaNoWriMo, although in my case it'd be InternaNoWriMo, but that's complicating things. I aim to have the first draft of a novel by 30th November. I shall hopefully report my findings here. Which should be fun.
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