This book is an objective look at the various implications of digital sampling and copyright infringement in the music industry.  It offers numerous examples of instances in the production of music that range from simply “causing a stir” to reaching a major court decision – and it provides the results of each.  It has been written and edited by a collection of scholars, specializing in a number of fields and commenting from a variety of backgrounds and points of view. 

            The book does not necessarily pose an argument as much as it clarifies the dispute between the recording industry and the digital sampling community.  It pits the copyright laws against the “creativity” of new musicians.  The book takes neither stance but rather gives adequate attention to both.  On one hand, it states that copyright is often blamed for curtailing creativity in music, in that it prevents the production of completely new songs simply because of their use of a small sample of a previous work.  Conversely, the authors acknowledge that copyright is also seen as a catalyst for creativity, offering incentive to create fully original work instead of somehow deriving it from a pre-existing source. 

            This dichotomy is essential to my argument seeing as it offers equal views and examples on the subject of digital sampling.  The cases identified in the text are sound evidence of the evolution of the copyright law as a result of the development of the digital sampling technologies and practices.  As a result of these case studies, the book also calls to mind a number of musical examples that can not only be analyzed further, but can also be used to find other examples or to gain further insight into the specific case in question. All of these items are discussed in a case-by-case basis with commentary following and this formal structure provides an easy reference into any single instance of copyright infringement that results from the practice of digital sampling.  This source will prove invaluable in the completion of the final paper, seeing as it outlines all of the surrounding facts and intricacies of copyright law as it pertains to music.  In deciding whether or not a sampling is within the bound of copyright law, this book has been cited numerous times, and will be upon completion of the paper.