[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Those who sample defend their art, saying creativity and skill are required to develop the new sound combinations.

Yes...perhaps. But if I take Michelangelo's David and and use paints and brushes and hundreds of thousands of tiny brush strokes in a heretofore unseen and unknown Impressionistic technique....it's still Michelangelo's David.

Any decent sound engineer can create new sound combinations. That doesn't necessarily make them an artist. If they use copyrighted material to do it, it does make them a thief.

[smalltownslick]

Well said. Thank you.