At one time there was a BiaB file sharing group on Yahoo! and plenty of styles were shared, including PG Music styles from newer disks (to save people from the cost of upgrading), my styles, and copyrighted songs with melodies.

I was in the group to protect my own interests, and I would continuously have to ask the moderators to remove my styles. So they kicked me off the group.

This irritated me so I wrote them a nice letter explaining that I'm a cottage business, eking out a living the best I can (definitely not getting rich) and this potentially takes food off my table. No response.

So I wrote to Yahoo!, the Harry Fox Agency, ASCAP, and BMI and about 6 months later the group disappeared.

Software piracy hurts the little people much more than the big guys. Cottage industry people get to pick which 16 hours of the day to work, and get paid much less per hour than the average person. But we love what we are doing, love being independent and not some 'wage slave', and always carry the hope of 'making it big' and getting out of the rut.

I know that certain people don't respect my copyrights and trade my styles. I've sent cease and desist letters to a number of web sites posting my styles, and tracking them down in itself is very time consuming. Still I lose money on the pirate trade, but I can't help that, only try to minimize it.

A style sharing site would amplify the problem. It could become like the old Yahoo! group, in which the files made by me, PG Music, David Bailey, Roy Hawkesford, Sherry Mayrent, Jim Wedd, Chuck & Janice etc. would be pirated, taking food off our tables. If you do start one, please do unto others.

Notes


Brand new 2012.5 updates from Norton Music:
  • 2 new style disks for Band-in-a-Box
  • 2 new free (with a purchase) fancy intro/ending disks for Real Band and other DAW's
  • The Ultimate Gospel Fake Disk
  • The Real Rock Fake Disk (plenty of classic rock in this one)
  • The Beatles Fake Disk
  • And an updated Christmas Fake Disk

Hundreds of Free .sgu and .mp3 demos for the above at: http://www.nortonmusic.com