I started out thinking that using someone else’s rhythm or melody in a song wasn’t a terrible thing. I mean, if one person can write a song, but another person can write it better, that second person should get the credit, right? I understand now how stupid that logic is. Maybe if both people wrote the melody from scratch, but one person just making changes to the others work is not the same as ownership. I can’t just walk into a house, hang a picture on the wall, and claim the house is mine now.

Similarly musicians should not be stealing other people’s music, or using it at all without permission. If your contribution to that song is going to be so great, then the first thing you should do is tell the original artist. Musicians love constructive feedback, right?

But, as we discussed, at what point does it stop being plagiarism and start being memory? I know I’ve got a million tunes rattling around in my head that I could never hope to identify in a million years. They are so old, and have been there for so long that to try to figure out where they came from would take a mind reader. If I used one of those tunes and made a million dollars, and some 80-year-old burnout comes up to me and claims credit, am I really responsible? At that point I don’t think so.