hmmmm, blunt you pretty ethical ehh, i dont consider it stealing myself, look at roberta flack, she got shit loads of cash when fugees sampled her, not from wy but from peoeple buying her old shit, sampling revives careers, and surely sampling 2 bars from a song isnt stealing?
beasties did it, dont know what track, but the original artist, some jazz flutinst took em to court, and who won? The Beasties did, the court said that that much of a sample didnt infringe on the copywrite, so if not clearing samples is illegal, go tell the beasties that....
on another note tho...i think actually buying the record sought of gives you the right to sample as well, in a sought of perverted way, cuz you have forked out for the tunes, you have supported the artist, so go buy it...
also, do yo think people like smiff n wesson clear samples, or El-P, i dont think so....check funcrusher plus, not one sample is credited, and this is our boy EL-P here....