Posted by Mister X aka Kim on July 03, 1999 at 08:42:54:

In Reply to: You read my mind... posted by Craig Stern on July 02, 1999 at 20:39:40:

: However, on the flip side of the coin, we must be careful to avoid the self-serving greed-mongering practices that govern the record industry today. I'm all for anti-plagiarism protection, but let's be careful not to undo the open and sharing atmosphere in the MOD community; the best thing about MODs, after all, is that they're free to make and free to check out.

You are absolutely correct, and ICOMM is not about preventing people from doing just that. I've always been fascinated with the way that one song can create another by sharing its samples or its effects secrets, when you "look into" the file and see that this sample came from here, and that sample came from here, it's really cool - but those are just samples, not the entire song. In Melcom's case, all that this person did was erase the information that said that Melcom created the song, and then inserted his own. They didn't even attempt to remix, remaster, or alter the actual music in any way. THAT is more along the lines of what an organization like ICOMM would be out to prevent.

It is important to not refer to what happened to Melcom as "ripping". "Ripping" happens all the time, and is actually encouraged, since "ripping" is the use of one artist's samples in another artist's song. There are very few artists who would have a problem with that, especially if the proper credits are placed in the Sample Text of the song.

Melcom was just plain "ripped off", no credit was given to him anywhere. Personally, my concern is more the effect that action has on Melcom's creative morale. As I said in the article, it is that sort of thing that can really crush an artist's spirit. Sure, he didn't lose any money over it, and the other website is not making any money off of it, but the experience of being robbed like that could have a detrimental effect on him - where does the inspiration come from to write another song? When he sits down in front of his computer again, will he just not even bother to create a song, thinking that it too will just be stolen by someone else?

There is more to be considered here, and I hope that we can get more people into the discussion so that we can tackle all aspects of this proposed organization.

Thanks for your comments.

Mister X aka Kim