My theory is simple, if you abuse it (the sample that is), you can use it.

One of my favorite things to do these days is to take samples and abuse the hell out of them with filters and effects to the point where I have a completley different sound. To me that's a whole other level of creating, using one sample as a raw sonic pallette and molding it into something else.

To me that's totally fair game.

As for using something carte blanche and just putting it in a different context, isn't that what we do everytime we DJ? Play tracks in new context? Programs like Live let us get down to repositioning actual phrases. It's "Live" remixing.

So in that sense its Live, but its still not Live like a band, but I'd wager that few electronic performances really are. Everything is presequenced to some degree, be it your own stuff or not.