"Over protecting intellectual property is as harmful as under protecting it. Culture is impossible without a rich public domain. Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new. Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Over protection stifles the very creative forces it’s supposed to nurture."

- Judge Alex Kozinski, Dissenting in the White v. Samsung Elec. Am., Inc., 989 F.2d 1512 (9th Cir. 1993) ruling.

The "Amen Break" is six second drum break found in the middle of "Amen Brother", a 'B' side from The Winstons back in the 60's.  What is so unusual about it is that this six second peice of music was instrumental in creating the sound of the Rave, Jungle, and Break Beat (to name but a few) in a time when Copyright was less restrictive than it is now.

If Copyright enforcement was as draconian as it is now back in the '80s would these music genres have come into being? I don't know.