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Website => Ripper / Plagiarism Reports => Hall of Shame => Topic started by: Flashira on January 25, 2019, 22:33:38

Title: Sa Mowar
Post by: Flashira on January 25, 2019, 22:33:38
[as of february 10th 2020, all albums from sa mowar has been taken off. justice served it seems!]
i was shazaming one of the already identified musics from tom's hardware guide videos and this album came up.
this sa mowar guy is basically claiming some tracked modules as their's and selling them commercially.
the only music i could recognize is dj ecera-alkarinques haran

is jay newingham back as sa mowar?

EDIT: thx axxy for identifying all songs sa mowar had ripped! go to page 2 for the list
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Flashira on January 26, 2019, 21:20:51
here's a spotify link if you cant watch the yt vids (thx gargaj!)
https://open.spotify.com/album/324ml8THJMwN4kCAIoOEsM (https://open.spotify.com/album/324ml8THJMwN4kCAIoOEsM)
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Ceekayed on January 27, 2019, 11:39:28
The proper course of action here would be to contact the original creators of those tracks so they can at the very least contact Spinnup to have the album taken off from their distribution service.
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Kinnikinnick0718 on January 27, 2019, 12:31:38
The proper course of action here would be to contact the original creators of those tracks so they can at the very least contact Spinnup to have the album taken off from their distribution service.
Uh, how do you contact the original creators if they haven't been identified?
Only one, DJ Ecera, has been identified so far.
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Saga Musix on January 29, 2019, 22:16:14
There is little you can do without having a proof that a song was made by another person anyway, so the kinda obvious answer is "you have to figure out who made the other tunes".
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Flashira on January 29, 2019, 23:00:39
sorry but i pretty much have gave up finding some stuff 🏳️
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Flashira on February 11, 2019, 19:01:57
most of them sounds like an .it module, so im kinda convinced that all of them were in .it format
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Saga Musix on February 11, 2019, 21:32:23
Could just as well be XM, it's just that general late-90s IT/XM sound.
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Nikku4211 on February 11, 2019, 23:47:19
most of them sounds like an .it module, so im kinda convinced that all of them were in .it format
Not only could they be XMs or ITs, they can also be S3Ms, or even MODs (whether it is Amiga or extended version). Come to think of it, they can be in any sequenced sample format, even with the characteristic '90s module' sound.
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Saga Musix on February 12, 2019, 22:47:59
Technically, yes. However, if you listen closely, you will find lots of details that speak for a typical IT / XM module of that era, e.g. wild ping-pong panning envelopes that would be extremely tedious to do in MOD / S3M and in particular would not allow for any other commands to be used at the same time. In practice that means that it's unlikely that they are MOD / S3M files.
But it doesn't really matter because I doubt that anyone is going to go through the entirety of all XM / IT files from that era on TMA to look for the originals. A much more promising attempt would be to identify a set of potential authors based on the style of the tracks and then download all their stuff and compare it.
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Flashira on February 21, 2019, 13:51:09
its truly unfair that someone is stealing music he didn't own and trying to sell it commercially... this shouldnt happen
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Nikku4211 on February 22, 2019, 12:59:55
its truly unfair that someone is stealing music he didn't own and trying to sell it commercially... this shouldnt happen

Yeah. Who wouldn't agree with that statement?
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Flashira on February 22, 2019, 13:17:33
i even tweeted about it: https://twitter.com/flashylamer/status/1098568742462644224
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Axxy on February 22, 2019, 17:11:51
So far...

1. DTK - al son del mar.it
2. Grogon - ale mito wiosna.xm
3. Jam (Poland) - aleja deszczu (fixed).xm
4. DJ Ecera - alkarinques haran.it
5. The Nuke - all that we get.xm
6. Butch - Alone in infinity.it
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Flashira on February 22, 2019, 18:54:01
thx axxy! 3 identified, 3 unidentified...
btw, i send you on a mission to find unidentified songs from tom's hardware guide videos!
https://modarchive.org/forums/index.php?topic=4180.0
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Axxy on February 22, 2019, 21:01:42
And that concludes that challenge, I hope they are all accurate.  I just wish I had the time to look for all these tracks but unfortunately I don't.  :-\
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Flashira on February 22, 2019, 21:15:22
thx alot, axxy!!
Title: Re: do this count?
Post by: Flashira on February 22, 2019, 21:20:13
and yes, sa mowar has been confirmed to be a complete ripper.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Flashira on June 16, 2019, 01:05:56
sad news: sa mowar just released vol 2, 3 of lost in love, which also contains rips of modules.
vol 2: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kw86G1FeMRLcSFaWK45fPWfAQn5hVWjA4
vol 3: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lu2q8hUuY-i0Qkv8mlhNMVHbNyh5mNjO8

so far the only song i've identified is:
track #3 of vol 2 is a song by saboteur with the same name.
they didnt even bother to change the name haha
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Axxy on June 16, 2019, 01:22:15
Song 2 Vol 3 after a quick gander

Awesome - Beyond the Heart.xm
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Axxy on June 16, 2019, 02:03:56
Lost in Love - Vol 2

1 Ballistique - Life in Termoil.it
2 Melin - A Magic World.xm
3 Saboteur - A Moment in Time.xm
4 Andromeda - The Baghdad Groove.xm
5 Lord Chaos - Bangkok Dusk (8 bit).xm
6 Alex Smith - Blue Shores (2001 Tweak).it
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Axxy on June 16, 2019, 12:02:58
Lost in Love Vol 3

1 Louigi Verona - Awakening of Venus.it
2 Awesome - Beyond the Heart.xm
3 Violator - By the Shore.xm
4 Deepthroat - Caves.xm
5 DHG - Cheyenne Blues.it
6 Alex Smith - Blue Shores (reprise).it
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Saga Musix on July 28, 2019, 22:59:00
I have notified both Louigi Verona and Awesome. Louigi has sent a complaint to the distributor, Spinnup. Let's see where this goes.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Flashira on July 29, 2019, 03:47:10
yup, saw their comments on youtube
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Saga Musix on August 01, 2019, 23:24:14
Seems like vol 3 was pulled from YouTube, the others are still there.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Flashira on August 02, 2019, 02:48:02
Yes! :D
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: louigi on August 03, 2019, 00:03:10
Hey everyone!

Here are the updates. This particular album, as you've seen, has been pulled from YouTube. Take down requests have been sent to other stores as well.

However, I have asked them this:

"In order for Spinnup to act on other releases, do the original authors of those releases have to specifically contact you? Or can you act based on the evidence you've seen in that ModArchive thread, which hints at this artist being a con artist and plagiarizing most of his releases, if not all of them? In other words, at which point would you make a decision to ban the artist as opposed to taking down just one of his releases which was formally complained about?"

They said:

"As part of any copyright claim we conduct a full investigation of the Spinnup user's account, and so we will of course take into account the information you provided us with.

Once the evidence has been reviewed and the investigation complete, we will then be able to make a decision about the user's other releases and their account as a whole."

Hopefully, that means this person's whole account will be eventually blocked. However, another complaint, from another artist, probably wouldn't hurt.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Saga Musix on August 03, 2019, 00:25:10
That's great news, and they seem to be more inclined to fix this stuff than YouTube could ever be. I just had a look at the artists in volume 2 and I think I will point Ballistique at this thread.
Edit: Unrelated to these albums but Rapture pointed out that one of his own tracks was also ripped on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GgYDgHw03A (original track is Aphrodisiac). It's distributed by the same publisher, Spinnup. I recommended him to take action as well, maybe it's the same guy after all!
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Flashira on August 03, 2019, 02:58:00
I recognize another track on lost in concrete jungle album:
Track 01 = quadro / eternal engine - another worlds
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Flashira on August 04, 2019, 10:45:55
and there are some more songs i recognized on mark bench's other albums:
alpha c - bright star (alpha_c_-_bright_star.it) (track 5 on promenade)
falcon - aural sunflower (sunflower.xm) (track 1/6 on augmented reality)
tb - butterfly flew away (tbbutt.xm) (track 6 on promenade)
distance/lackluster - catch 22 (catch22.xm) (track 4 on sea of stars)

maybe sa mowar, mark bench, babylon project (and swagato gangopadhyay) are the same person??
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Saga Musix on August 04, 2019, 14:06:19
Alpha C and Lackluster have been informed. I would also not be surprised if it's all the same person.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: ballistique on August 05, 2019, 10:14:59
Many thanks to Louigi, Flashy and Saga Musix for reporting on this.  I will contact Spinup and Youtube today.  I'll update you when I have further info.

Thanks again.

Ballistique
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: ballistique on August 09, 2019, 11:09:30
Just a quick update for you.

I have been in touch with Spinnup and have been dealing with the legal team, the deadline for them to respond is today, so hopefully, I'll get some good news.

Youtube, well that's another matter, I got an email from them today that started:

"We are concerned that some of the information in your takedown request may be fraudulent"

This is before they have even asked me to provide details of the infringement. Anyway, I've emailed them back and we'll wait and see what happens.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: ballistique on August 09, 2019, 13:32:00
I just got an email from Spinnup:

Hi Nathan,

Just to update you, we did not hear back from the Spinnup artist so have now issued a take down of 'Lost in Love Vol. 2' from all stores.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Thanks,

Molly
Spinnup Paralegal
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: ballistique on August 09, 2019, 18:29:49
Email from YouTube:

Hello,

Thank you very much for your notification. The content has been removed.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Team
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Flashira on August 09, 2019, 19:02:47
yay!
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Saga Musix on August 09, 2019, 23:18:19
Great to hear.

Youtube, well that's another matter, I got an email from them today that started:

"We are concerned that some of the information in your takedown request may be fraudulent"
Totally not unexpected with their automated system. I wouldn't be surprised if it claimed the same thing for about any video that was uploaded through one of their partners like Spinnup.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: louigi on August 12, 2019, 14:00:40
I just wish Spinnup could take down the artist themselves. Do they need us to go through every album of that con artist? Isn't it clear they are cheating? Surreal.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Saga Musix on August 12, 2019, 20:54:03
Well, I guess for them it's the legally safer method and also less work in the general case... Still sucks, though.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: louigi on August 22, 2019, 12:26:42
I would say it is very safe legally, and it is less work. You just remove the artist since they breached the Terms and Conditions (as if they are going to seriously sue), and you no longer receive these requests.

I think they just do their work automatically and they are not incentivized to actually do this. So it is easier for them to just work on their tickets. Maybe they have to go through a special internal process to do this since blocking a whole artist might be an edge case.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: esaruoho on May 23, 2020, 13:02:33
and there are some more songs i recognized on mark bench's other albums:
alpha c - bright star (alpha_c_-_bright_star.it) (track 5 on promenade)
falcon - aural sunflower (sunflower.xm) (track 1/6 on augmented reality)
tb - butterfly flew away (tbbutt.xm) (track 6 on promenade)
distance/lackluster - catch 22 (catch22.xm) (track 4 on sea of stars)

maybe sa mowar, mark bench, babylon project (and swagato gangopadhyay) are the same person??

Hi, just noticed that Saga had gotten in touch with me re: catch22 being in Sea of Stars. I'll check what my YouTube account says about Catch22, and whether there are one or two copyright pings on there (one should be from CDBaby, which is me posting that song, and the other would be this Mark Bench dude)
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Flashira on May 23, 2020, 17:21:18
well, mark bench's sea of stars got taken off, along with his other albums

(same goes with one of his other aliases, sa mowar)
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Alex Smith on September 16, 2020, 23:34:22
Just found out about this. If you Shazam my ones it still comes up with this imposter. I feel sick  >:( I know my tunes are over 20 years old and not very good but they're my tunes. How can people be so .... well, crap?
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Axxy on September 17, 2020, 12:22:46
Just found out about this. If you Shazam my ones it still comes up with this imposter. I feel sick  >:( I know my tunes are over 20 years old and not very good but they're my tunes. How can people be so .... well, crap?

Wow, glad to see you are still around and doing well I hope?  Your mods might be over 20 years old, last one from around 2006?? but they still sound fresh even today!!

Anyway, please upload any more "not very good modules" you might have lying around, I'd like to hear them!!  ;D
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Saga Musix on September 17, 2020, 18:35:24
Hi Alex, you should probably follow the same steps as some of the other artists in this thread to make sure that this stuff is really gone.
Title: Re: Sa Mowar
Post by: Flashira on December 23, 2021, 00:19:39
i think it should be safe to put this thread and the ones for swagato and babylon project to the hall of shame at this point.