Pop band Flower has been troubled by a series of reports in the media and on the Internet that at least four songs on their latest album are copies of songs by a few international bands.

The four young men in Flower, signed to the EMI label, initially denied the accusation. The media however has been relentless. The Beijing News invited the chief music director of an arts publishing house to compare the songs.

The expert concluded that the recordings of the four songs were startlingly similar. One shared an almost identical melody, with the only differences occurring in the seventh bar and the ending, with a song of the Japanese duo Puffy AmiYumi. The company representing the Japanese duo said their songs had clearly been "sampled."'

Flower lyricist Da Zhangwei admitted to the press this week that he and his band mates have so many tunes stored in their heads that they "have no time to identify, revise and delete" ones which aren't theirs.

However, Flower is not the only band to have been singled out for plagiarism recently.

A Mongolian song "Three Lucky Treasures," which won second place at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala on January 28, was accused by netizens of imitating the theme song of the 2002 French film "Le Papillon." Buren Bayaer, the lyricist and singer of the song, has come forward to say that he wrote the song in 1994. And in 1997, he recorded the song on 500 cassettes and gave 200 copies to his French friends, according to China Radio International.

Although few people have the expertise to make the judgment, the allegations themselves warn us again that plagiarism is an ill that is hurting the creative mind.

It is true that increased international exchanges and an explosive amount of information available on the Internet now provide far more intellectual and cultural resources to people than in the past.

As well as the Internet, we have also inherited some 5,000 years of historical, social and cultural legacies most without names of creators.

Seven years ago, a TV programme host proudly announced that a veteran folk song singer was the composer of a well-known ethnic Hezhen song that he'd sung for nearly 40 years.

People of Hezhen in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province were angry at the remark, as all the composer/singer did was rearrange the main melody of their ethnic folk song. They went to court, and won recognition for the work.

Perhaps the singer wondered about the fairness of the decision. After all, without his contribution, the vast majority of people would not be aware of the beautiful sound of Hezhen music.

However, plagiarism could be a crime. We cannot be tempted to just copy and paste and claim the results as our own ingenuity, without obtaining permission or giving due respect and credit to those who have made contributions.

Can we borrow from them or take their ideas as our own, without so much as naming the sources that provide us the inspiration?

We cannot. If we do so, we are as wrong as the lead singer of Flower and the veteran folk artist.

Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/16/2006 page4)