Mamoru Samuragochi, a man credited with composing classical music and video game soundtracks, "has admitted [to] hiring someone else to write his music for nearly two decades," the BBC reports.

The 50-year-old Samuragochi was thought to be deaf, drawing comparisons to Beethoven, but that may be untrue as well. "In a surprise twist, the man who says he was the ghost-writer of the works, Takashi Niigaki, claimed in a press conference Thursday that he did not believe the acclaimed composer was deaf at all," according to CNN.

Originally posted by: Jig

He purchased the work (surely with full rights) and can do whatever he wants with it - even claim it is his work. Authors (and probably most musicians) do this all the time.

Originally posted by: cradelit


Sure, you can claim it's your work, it's just you will be lying and therefore a fraud.
 

Originally posted by: cradelit


Sure, you can claim it's your work, it's just you will be lying and therefore a fraud.
 

Originally posted by: Jig


I don't see anyone calling Stephen King a fraud for using ghost writers and not citing them on the cover.
 

Originally posted by: Jig


I don't see anyone calling Stephen King a fraud for using ghost writers and not citing them on the cover.
 

Originally posted by: Trj22487

R.L. Stein is another "fraud" writer.

Originally posted by: Jig

I think I am on a different page than everyone else. lol

I was concerned with legal fraud. Which the guy didn't commit. However, I agree that this is moral fraud. However, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't done anything immoral.

Originally posted by: Darth Vader


How so?
 

Originally posted by: empire



Trj is just mad because he came up with the idea for Goosebumps books in the 80's but RL beat him to the punch.

Originally posted by: cradelit

Actually I don't see how it isn't legal fraud.. He apparently lied to his record label about it in several business deals, and they relied on that information for those deals. I would think they could certainly sue him if they wanted

Originally posted by: Trj22487


Lol no, because I bought like 50 of those damn books in the 90's, and watched every episode of the damn show, and it always said "Readers/Viewers beware, you're in for a scare!"
....but y'know what? Never once was I scared! Fraud! I should have been told I would be comically amused and in for an extremely short read!

Funny story about R.L. Stein, I remember in the mid 90's me and my friend somehow got his home phone number for a school book report and got on the phone with him. After a minute he totally snubbed us by saying he had to go walk his dog and he hung up, lmao. I'd kinda forgotten that even happened until I typed that last thing. The friend I wrote that report with died a few years ago too, I wonder if he would have remembered that :/

Haha god I used to get so excited too when my Dad would take me to the bookstore and I'd instantly snipe out the front cover of the latest release and I'd zap right to the shelf like a magnet. I used to always know what the upcoming book was going to be. Hell I used to even have T-shirts! I definitely have an old photo somewhere of me at my Grandparents house wearing a "The Shrunken Head" shirt. I remember I had a "Say Cheese and Die" shirt too and my hamster at the time got loose and chewed a ton of holes into it. Ahh.....good times.

Originally posted by: K.Thrower

Yeah sadly this isn't as uncommon as it should seem. Many of the most famous pop stars get "their new song" and it is a ready to go package of lyrics and music, choreography, and even video/marketing ideas.

Makes sense, when you see they are touring for 2 years straight, doing interviews and appearances, and releasing albums, that they didn't take the months of focus necessary to do the work for themselves. Still, comes off as deceptive when the general public believes otherwise.

Originally posted by: K.Thrower

Yeah sadly this isn't as uncommon as it should seem. Many of the most famous pop stars get "their new song" and it is a ready to go package of lyrics and music, choreography, and even video/marketing ideas.

Makes sense, when you see they are touring for 2 years straight, doing interviews and appearances, and releasing albums, that they didn't take the months of focus necessary to do the work for themselves. Still, comes off as deceptive when the general public believes otherwise.

Originally posted by: Beliskner

This exactly. Of course writing a pop song doesn't take that long compared to other genres but still.
With bands that actually have to work hard you can see they only release one album every two or three years. Sometimes it takes even longer. One of the many reasons I prefer genres like progressive rock/metal. You can just hear that it took a long time to write these songs and it really shows in the quality.