Topic: What is the legal "mumbo jumbo" behind audio samples?

[Arbok]

fter searching Google for half a hour with no clear results, I was wondering if anyone here could answer my question.

What exactly is the legal information behind "audio samples'? A lot of sites do it (amazon, buy.com) and I was wondering exactly what terms they have to follow to keep it legal? Is there a time limit, if i had to guess under 30 seconds or 1 minute? What about songs that are less than those listed times? And how would this apply to a audio medium not on CD (example: Game or Movie that has no CD soundtrack, or atleast not that particular song)?

Sorry for the tough question, and thanks in advance.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Any piece of audio reproduction that travels beyond your domain of "personal/home use" (an mp3 containing copyrighted material you upload from your computer to wherever it ends up is an example) without the owner's/publisher's approval is technically illegal.

Some places like Amazon get "no trouble" from posting samplings either by getting publisher's consent or posting cut, lower-quality samples that are explicitly stated to be for "sampling" or "editorial" purposes (as what gaming sites may call it) that would be outlined in their online usage policy/disclaimer.  And as you've seen, publishers and artists allow such to take place (probably cuz it's free publicity for them).

I don't know if there is a legal definition of a "sample".

As for audio taken from a gaming product, the publisher/developer/intellectual property owner still has ownership of those audio samples, and the same ideas mentioned above apply, despite the absence of a soundtrack since a commercially released game (everything part of it and in it) IS copyrighted and/or trademarked.  You can find statements in game credits/manuals that say things like "all artwork, audio, names, characters, story, and program code are property of 'such and such'".