If someone tells you that Dr. Luke wants to write a song with you, my advice is…run for the hills. If you remember the song "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne what you might not know is that Dr. Luke wrote that song which later was found to have striking similarities to a chorus from the song "I wanna be your boyfriend" by the Rubinoos. Avril was then sued by the band which forced her to settle out of court. Personally I don't really see what the big deal is. Though a small section of the chorus is similar this clearly isn't a case of someone stealing music.

Well Dr. No Good is up to Luke again….oops I mean Dr. Luke is up to no good again and this time it could mean trouble for the very popular rock band Daughtry. Daughtry's new song "Feels Like Tonight" shows striking similarities to a song called "Tonight" by The Asphalt. Now on this one, I do agree that these too songs are way too similar and it is clearly a case of someone stealing music from a not so popular band and giving it to a world recognized band.

Find this occurrence not surprising though. There are tons of videos out there in which people have tried to expose others who have done this as well. Timbaland is another major producer that gets accused of this as well. In this video it is shown where the melody came from in one of Nelly Furtado's songs "Do it". However when Timbaland was asked about this, he like many other artist out there call it sampling. Taking a piece of something someone else does and adding your own to it to make something different. Is that pretty much what everyone does these days?

I can't tell you how many times I have heard popular music and then happen to be riding with my mom and hearing the same thing on a radio station that plays old songs. Sometimes I am really surprised to find out that a song I really liked was nothing more than a slightly changed version of what someone else has done already. One thing that is important though is that people are given their due credit and royalties for being the originator of the material. When someone else takes the credit for it just because they are well known, I have a problem with that. This is not called sampling, it's stealing. 



Aaron Fields writes for KSTW-TV in Seattle. All opinions expressed in this column are his.