Here is what I think.

For most people their propensity to feel obligated to show respect by obtaining permission before sampling or remixing another artist's music is based solely on the proximity of that other artist. Proximity being the distance between the remixer/samplist and the original artist. If you know the original artist and often speak to them, then you probably feel you must ask for their permission first. If you don't speak with them, but you see them around cause you hang in the same circle, then again the obligation is very strong. But as you put further distance between you and the original artist, the feeling of obligation severely diminshes. If you don't know them and never see them, but their is a chance they might hear your remix, then there is still some degree of obligation that you should ask permission, but this can be a breaking point. However, if you remix or sample from an artist you do not know, that isn't part of your own musical genere, and that therefore probably won't even ever hear your remix, then the feeling of obligation is reduced perhaps to ziltch, zero. Unless you are absolute in your ethics, and I have a feeling some of you might be.

Food for thought or load of wank?