As harshly as it was thrown out, Rome is saying the Truth. Selling a sampled beat without clearance is illegal. There are loopholes around it as I said in my post.
If i sell a beat with a sample of someone's work in it, I might as well be selling you a bootleg of their CD. Same thing.
That's why you should have stipulations to the contracts you use when selling sampled tracks. Something along the line of you being compensated for the original work you've done in the track with the label or artists taking the responsibility to track down others involved so they are compensated.
That's a pretty standard contract. Same would be used if I co-produced a track but I was the main guy involved with the sale, or if I made the track but had a bassist that needed to be paid as well.
You can legally be paid for your work before all parties involved in a song are paid. But if you just "sell the beat with no clearance" that is very much illegal and can bind you to responsibilities if it isn't cleared.
That's not saying major artists don't do this on a regular basis, because they most definetly do. I've made a good lick off of selling uncleared tracks, but that's like saying I've made a good lick off slinging dope. That doesn't make it legal or the correct way to do things just because famous producers are doing the same.
