Public domain / CC0 samples

[cassmcentee]

I've never had a problem, but that's due to the fact that I avoid anything other than making my own samples.
(From my desire to build a reputation within this business and never put it at risk!)

[Len911]

you can't copyright a sound. the content can be copyrighted. the license agreement with sample libraries merely address the reselling of the samples. the content is the intellectual content, so a company can sell you an instrument, but they can't copyright the sound of the instrument because it has no intellectual property. You can't copyright your voice, it either falls under journalism, if you cut and paste the words of a recognizable person, they possibly could sue for defamation, because the words are creating content, the unoriginal content. the whole purpose of samples is the ability to use them without paying royalties, same as for an instrument, otherwise they are useless and no one would purchase them.

a work for hire protects the composer from the hired from claiming they composed the piece they played and protects the hired from liability if the piece was copyrighted by someone other than the person that hired them to perform.

disclosure, I am not an attorney, just putting in my 2 cents about how I understand how things work.