Sampling and scratching in US copyright and Polish law: a comparative analysis

Legal context This article discusses legal issues surrounding modern music techniques known as sampling and scratching. The authors aim to present those problems from US and Polish perspectives. Key points The article aims to provide an overview of US case law and regulations. It is accompanied with comments on Polish law. In particular, it discusses the problem of the application of strict copyright protection to creativity based on 'mixing' previous works by modern music composers. Practical significance By providing a short comparative study, the authors seek to present arguments in favour of less strict copyright protection for this kind of creativity. In the PDF version of this article, available at www.jiplp.oxfordjournals.org, the authors have included examples of music based on sampling and scratching.