Abstract
Have you ever listened to a song and gotten the sense that it sounds familiar without knowing why? In copyright law, that recognition (or lack thereof) can determine whether a musician is liable for copyright infringement. Federal courts are sharply divided over whether the unlicensed sampling of sound recordings should give rise to liability when the borrowed sound is trivial or unrecognizable. The Sixth Circuit’s bright-line rule treats any unauthorized sampling as infringement, while the Ninth Circuit preserves the traditional de minimis doctrine. This Comment argues that the Fourth Circuit should adopt the Ninth Circuit’s de minimis standard when faced with sound recording sampling disputes. Doing so would align with the Fourth Circuit’s basic infringement framework, promote the balance the Copyright Act seeks to keep in promoting creativity while protecting artists’ rights, and avoid imposing disproportionate licensing and litigation burdens on the region’s primarily independent music community.
Recommended Citation
Jana S. Flowers, A Sample Too Small to Sue Over: A De Minimis Approach to Music Sampling in the Fourth Circuit, 48 Campbell L. Rev. 273 (2026).