Not perhaps our strong point as we haven't credited any of the samples we've used so far (but we'll try to if we ever make any money - we did try to contact the production company for one of the films we sampled, but they couldn't remember making the film so we gave up!). Personally we hope people will mix and sample us, i don't suppose we'll like it all but that's not the point. I hope that if anybody uses our stuff they'll give us some money, but only if they make any.

• Covers: I'm not sure about this but there may be an automatic licence to cover a song so anyone can do it, but you do have to pay for it - to whom and how much i have no idea. But again if you only sell 10 albums in 10 years it just shouldn't matter.
• Samples: i think you have to speak to the owners (record label, film company) to buy permission, which they don't have to give. I take it that's why 'White Label' records are made: to show off a track and sell it to a record company with samples but with no information about who made it so that no one can be sued - though everybody knows who made it.

Try reading up about this Creative Commons License, we've decide to try it with tantrum and Fake Tan.

DRM - Deliberately Ruining Music is a waste time and money and puts people off buying music because pirated music can be played on all machines.

The RIAA (I do like mafRIAA - thanks Techdirt and Slashdot) sueing people for downloading music is wrong. By all means bust people who are mass  producing cds but taking people to court because you won't distribute music the way it should be distributed is just bad practise. No wonder bands are abandoing  the system  - Radiohead, Madonna, Prince, Paul McCartney, Simply Red etc...

Does piracy adversely affect music? I have say 10 copies of albums friends have made me. Some i like and i have bought more of, others i don't like and don't listen too - and wouldn't have bought anyway. To me copies and compilations for friends is the best way to hear new music. Its not as if radio playes much good music during  the day. 

In the early '80s I and most of my friends had about 100 c90 cassettes, with 2 albums per tape. Thats 200 albums - and that was supposed to be at the height of music sales. Sure they couldn't be copied and passed on infinitely but that is a lot of copies.