Where does this come from, and can I check it?

A court held that taking a recorded phrase without permission infringed the recording. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a music fact?

Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Sampling had to be licensed after a 1991 ruling

A court held that taking a recorded phrase without permission infringed the recording The decision pushed producers from borrowing freely to clearing every loop. Some labels began selling sample packs and split sheets instead. Legal clearance became a routine cost of building a track. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Library of Congress

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

Music trivia

More facts like this

Hip hop started at a Bronx block partyA DJ isolating the percussion break gave dancers more of what they wanted Hip-hop's birthday is traced to a party in the BronxDJ Kool Herc played at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue on 11 August 1973 The Roland TR-808 built its drums from oscillatorsIt used no samples at all, only synthesised thumps and bursts of noise One drum machine shaped a genreThe Akai MPC60 arrived in 1988 with pads and a sequencer in one box A turntable became an instrumentMoving the record by hand while a needle reads it turns vinyl into a percussion source The Fairlight CMI was the first digital samplerThe Australian workstation arrived in 1979 and cost as much as a house

Tags: sampling, law, hip-hop

Sampling had to be licensed after a 1991 ruling: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: A court held that taking a recorded phrase without permission infringed the recording. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.