However if you're going to yank a loop, atleast make your own variation to it. Don't just flat out rip off the loop. That is my opinion on the subject.
Exactly...in a similar vein, I think Tee Boy (of KvR) makes a lot of sense:
I constantly, constantly, CONSTANTLY, hear drum loops from sample CDs or other loop librarys that I recognice...very boring...programming loops yourself from existent material or make a completly new groove from synthesis is much more fresh imo.
Yeh, but imagine all the stuff you havent noticed! I admit its not very tasteful to drop premade beats into your track, but that isnt to say that these loops dont serve a purpose. I mean, taste 5 break beats, chop them up, layer bits, process bits, generally **** them up beyond recognition... and no one is going to recognise a thing.

If you are prepared to use premade drum samples, then i dont see any problem using premade loops as long as you do so to create your own beats. I do this ALL the time, and have no issue with it. Its not that i cant record and design beats from scratch (infact i do more often than not), its just that i prefer working with loops. Kits are a little bland in comparison, except maybe for the likes of the super kits (DFH, BFD etc).

Let me give you an example:

I was doing a track the other day using this exact technique. I started with a live drum loop i recorded a while back, chopped it up and locked it to a tempo. I then took a nice top loop off BT's breaks CD, cut it up and layered the snare and hat over those on my live drums. I then took a nice old break off a vinyl, did the same and fitted it in with the beat. After a while of toying around i got a nice beat together which had a live feel with a nice modern breaks sounds. No way i could have done this with out working with loops, since the variations in the different hits wouldnt be there.

And i guarentee there aint nobody would spot which samples i used. Not a prayer.
Also, without meaning to piss in his pocket, reading the practical, results-oriented attitude of Mark EG towards sampling on one of the early posts on these boards was quite liberating for me.

I also note that no-one's mentioned MIDI drumloops. You can cycle through these and try out ideas quickly, and it's pretty hard to call using them unoriginal because they're generally so basic (calling up a pattern that's simply a trigger on every second 16th to hear how it sounds like that is hardly plagiarism), and you're still going to be using your own choice of samples and dynamics.

Also, drum kits in the real world resonate, and electronic kits don't...so unless you're going for a clinical sound, that's good enough reason for considering using some sounds from breakbeats...the "air" between hits alone can add a lot, even if you borrow only that and loop it or something...