I've had the uncomfortable experience of finding a song in a car commercial that sounded like one of my MOD tracks. Two of my friends independently informed me to go look. In the end, I had to admit to having lifted half (every other note) of a rhythm of someone else's MOD to create my own. I also got the samples from other MODs and sampled Negativeland's voice clips. Who's ripping on who?
This stuff happens.
But patents.... Serious need to wipe the slate, invalidate all of them, and start over with much more strenuous rules on what can be patented. You can thank the computer industry for the dire condition of the patent system.
