Next time, Sam Callow should simply use out-of-copyright recordings. Recordings that were so old they are well out of copyright.

That way, it'd remove all the high-horse "illegal" aspect of the argument, and it would simply be a case of "is the music good or not?"

But there's also a more philosophical argument to be had here. If I make some music using in-copyright material by other people, and put it online, but don't charge for it, what are the ethics there? The only 'capital' I can be said to be making is cultural capital: it can't really be called exploitation as no money is changing hands. All I gain is a rather small, limited amount of prestige or kudos from anyone who thought the music was good. If I wanted to be whiter than white, I could do it anonymously, so nobody could even accuse me of trying to garner any professional prestige or make a name for myself.