[Harp-L] plagiarism

["Glenn Weiser" <celticguitar1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Great music is an
inspiration to musician's, and many will copy it during their own
growth. For some that means their music will never be much more than
derivative, for others it's s stepping stone on the path to greater
things. But I bet 99.9% of the audience doesn't care - they're just
enjoying the music anbd having fun. Isn't that more the point than
who is getting the credit, or the royalties? That is a subject for
attorneys...and the subject of law or intellectual property and stuff
like that is very far removed from enjoying music.

- Robert
aka: RawHarp

Rob-

When you're the guy who's getting infringed on, and some parrot is running 
around spouting off your solos to big rounds of applause, maybe you'll see 
it differently.
I'm sensitive to this topic because I've been infringed on before, and I 
just got infringed on last week. Someone just took one of my guitar books 
that I get paid royalties for and put it on the Interent for free. Just as I 
was about to email my publisher to get the process of suing the bastard 
underway, I checked the culprit's website and it had taken down. Some of us 
depend on music for a livelihood. So when someone steals my book that I 
worked so hard to write and puts it up on the Internet without telling me, 
they're stealing the bread off my table. Does that bring it home to you?
You only enjoy music because other people-songwriters, singers, bands, 
record labels, and music publishers- work to bring it you. And they deserve 
to be fairly compensated for their work just like you do. That's why these 
issues matter. Stephen Foster died in poverty becuase publishers printed his 
songs and never paid him. He's one of the reasons copyright laws were 
written. In the case of the copycat artist I mentioned, it's uncertain laws 
were broken. But in my opinion ethics were disregarded. Little Walter worked 
very hard to become the towering artist that he was. And he deserves credit 
for that work, even in death.

-Glenn