Since its rise to prominence among hip hop producers thirty years ago, digital music sampling has... more Since its rise to prominence among hip hop producers thirty years ago, digital music sampling has become a popular method of music production for musicians across multiple genres. Yet case law, copyright laws, and standard music industry practices have produced a legal environment that discourages the creation of sample-based music. Artists who sample must either confront myriad obstacles inherent in obtaining permission to use samples or release unlicensed sample-based works that risk engendering expensive copyright infringement lawsuits. This has brought forth a multidecadal body of scholarship replete with various solutions to the sampler’s dilemma. But after twenty-five years of work highlighting the problems inherent in the legal environment surrounding sampling and the development of comprehensive solutions to address them, the dilemma remains. This paper seeks to explain why such reform has not happened and imagine what would be required to achieve it.
Environmental ethics literature often argues that we should conserve the environment in order to ... more Environmental ethics literature often argues that we should conserve the environment in order to (1) preserve the lives of future people and (2) provide future people with a basic level of quality of life. But what must we give up in exchange? Garrett Hardin's argument for lifeboat ethics implies that we should conserve the environment even if it requires sacrificing the lives of current people. Should we sacrifice current lives in order to save future lives? Should we sacrifice current lives in order to provide a certain level of quality of life for future people? Should we regard current people's quality of life interests as equally valuable to future people's quality of life interests? This paper examines these moral concerns within the context of environmental ethics.
Since its rise to prominence among hip hop producers thirty years ago, digital music sampling has... more Since its rise to prominence among hip hop producers thirty years ago, digital music sampling has become a popular method of music production for musicians across multiple genres. Yet case law, copyright laws, and standard music industry practices have produced a legal environment that discourages the creation of sample-based music. Artists who sample must either confront myriad obstacles inherent in obtaining permission to use samples or release unlicensed sample-based works that risk engendering expensive copyright infringement lawsuits. This has brought forth a multidecadal body of scholarship replete with various solutions to the sampler’s dilemma. But after twenty-five years of work highlighting the problems inherent in the legal environment surrounding sampling and the development of comprehensive solutions to address them, the dilemma remains. This paper seeks to explain why such reform has not happened and imagine what would be required to achieve it.
Environmental ethics literature often argues that we should conserve the environment in order to ... more Environmental ethics literature often argues that we should conserve the environment in order to (1) preserve the lives of future people and (2) provide future people with a basic level of quality of life. But what must we give up in exchange? Garrett Hardin's argument for lifeboat ethics implies that we should conserve the environment even if it requires sacrificing the lives of current people. Should we sacrifice current lives in order to save future lives? Should we sacrifice current lives in order to provide a certain level of quality of life for future people? Should we regard current people's quality of life interests as equally valuable to future people's quality of life interests? This paper examines these moral concerns within the context of environmental ethics.
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