It seems strange to us now, but there was a time when the legality of sampling allowed the legitimate and lawful usage of ‘an unrecognisable portion of a track’, without any need for clearance or declaration.
Thankfully (and quite rightly) this law was overhauled in the 1990s, meaning that any usage of another artist’s work required reporting, so that the original artist could be paid royalties too. No more costly court cases… or so it was hoped.
