Gil Kaufman at MTV reports that the family of David Pryor has filed suit against Kanye West over West’s hit 2005 song “Gold Digger”.

According to the lawsuit, West used a 13-second sample of Pryor’s 1974 song “Bumpin’ Bust Stop” by his group Thuner & Lightning. The lawsuit alleges that West has caused millions in damages through his use of the unlicensed sample and has “systematically and willfully refused to clear samples of the plaintiff’s original, copyright work.”

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Make no mistake about it, Amanda Palmer achieved the impossible. Who would have thought an indie artist could successful raise $1,000,000+ via crowdfunding, an amount which rivals most label release budgets?Well, lots of people thought this was possible. not to mention an entire community of indie musicians. Amanda would likely be the first to say it was a perfect orchestration of luck, personality, fan connection, and unremitting work to pull off such feat. Her navigation into the unknown was handled flawlessly, resulting in a marvellous project in the making and a world of inspired indie musicians. This is a good thing. This is a very very good thing.

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The fundamental differences between traditional 360 contracts and non-traditional anti-360 agreements are so obvious it’s like comparing apples to oranges.  From a contractual perspective the disparities are so interesting and potentially industry changing that it’s my duty to present the information to the general music public.   Instead of simply addressing the differences between deals from a basic viewpoint, the purpose of this article is to dissect the deals from a contractual perspective in order to showcase the practical application.

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