Ah, Clinton...what a ...bracing...philosophy you bring to the boards!

I share your dismay, Hera, when some song I think of as "mine" gets done by somebody else. It may not be very grown up but it sure is understandable. Nothing to do but learn to do it so well it blows everybody else out of the water, or do it totally differently.

I made my living for many years as a studio potter, and coming up with new ideas was always a part of the job. Really good new ideas soon get copied by other potters and for a small timer like myself there was never enough money in it to go to the trouble of copyrighting, etc. Sometimes "my" idea would outsell the copies because it was better. Sometimes, if a bunch of people started copying it I'd back out of the fray as the market became saturated. It was always sort of galling, but I learned to use it as both a goad for further creativity, and as a lesson in humiility. I try to do the same with music...but sometimes it's still hard. I still remember my heart sinking, years ago, when Judy Collins (an idol at the time) recorded Buddy Can you Spare a Dime...a song I loved and had all to myself for years.