[bern4444]

Music samples are a natural parallel.

You cannot sample music without permission no matter how short the sample may be.

Similarly you cannot steal a snippet of someone else's code without permission or the correct licensing.

[wilsonnb3]

Eh music sampling is a unique case because of the dual intellectual property concerns (the composition and the recording).

I can’t use a snippet from a recording no matter how short but I can use a tiny snippet of a composition. You can’t copyright a single note.

[brigandish]

So code and mechanical music (i.e. a recording) aren't exactly the same, but code and music compositions are more similar. Can you use a tiny snippet from a composition and still infringe copyright? Yes, you can. Maybe not however short, but there will come a point.

[BeFlatXIII]

> You cannot sample music without permission no matter how short the sample may be.

Which is a blatantly mistaken court ruling and one which I will not enforce if I am on a jury in such a trial.