Interesting
I heard if you change it enough, there is nothing they can do about it.
For example a snare drum sound on a commercially recorded CD. How are they even gonna prove anyone took the snare sample from a commercial recording if the sound criminal edited it heavily so it sounded different? It would be like using the sampled sound as a template or a foundation, and then the sound criminal builds on that foundation to create whole new works of madness, until the original foundation/template wasn't recognizable anymore.

Ethically, you should get the lisence, especially if it is a blantant rip-off of the actual work.