Is it Illegal..

..to say..use a short snippet from a comedian as a sample in our song. It's not even 2 seconds long.

Originally Posted by: ericthecableguy..to say..use a short snippet from a comedian as a sample in our song. It's not even 2 seconds long.

Check out the laws on 'public domain'. It may have changed since my days in school, but it used to be that 9 seconds was legal to use without a copyright infringement.

Most writers, photographers, comics...etc will usually okay it if you write to them with the content and intent. They may want to hear the final project before giving you their blessing, but most will do it without charge.

They get the benefit of additional exposure without the expense.

Some won't.

Generally musicians are the worst of the lot for allowing their work to be sampled.

Well, we all love mitch hedberg. One time we played a song and i quoted him saying "That's heavy boy" in his goofy tone. (The real quote is "They were heavy boy").

Anyways, we recorded the tune, and want to put the sample of him saying that at the end.

Its both an inside joke and a tribute.

I think he would have understood.

A good rule of thumb is: "If you have to ask... it probably is"

It also depends where you are...

You're very unlikely to be prosecuted regardless of the legality of it if you're not making money. If it's a free download etc you might someday get a letter asking you to remove it, but you'll only get sued if you've sold a million copies of the record...