Owning A Sound?

[Guest The Journey Man Project]

I was wondering when a producer uses a certains sound or sample, for exampe the guitar from "As A Child I Could Walk On The Ceiling", and somebody else uses that exact sound, is there a copyright issue? Or maybe even a synth sound? Just I notice a lot of tracks, especially in chill ut, have similar melodyic riffs that sound identical... I mean if I were to release a rock track that had the same riff of Us "Zooropa", I'd be pretty much sued straight away... just wondering how you actually copyright something that basially consist of samples that anyone can access?