BTB,
I know you sent me an email and I was remiss in answering. Your question gave birth to a many headed monster - that I am still not quite sure off all the answers. Let me try to explain.
Bassically.net made a decision to revamp their website and remove all of us who were "Board of Director's" of the "International Institute of Bassists", lesson columnists and forum mods. As you know, they did this with no warning. One of the reasons that they stated for removing my lessons was that other websites (one in Japan, I guess) was stealing the pages with the lessons on it. Since Cliff could not keep the lessons proprietary, he revamped his site, removing Misty and other lessons of mine and others. Of course, that is their perogative. One of the reasons that I agreed to work with Bassically.net is that they were willing to deal with the fallout of licensing issues - although I don't believe they paid any royalties or cared to, for that matter.
I realized, from this experience, that it is not OK to give away my work anymore. I have been developing chord melody solo material since 1979. I have written 2 books on the subject and have 2 CD's out. This is the way that I make my living - playing, teaching, arranging, writing and recording. I am also not willing to give away my arrangementsl for free AND pay licensing on the arrangements that I write.
I understand that many think that the internet is a place for "free stuff". I am just not in a position to give it away anymore and would hope that you would support my work by buying books, CD's etc.
In the past, I have printed the arrangement(s) and provided them, for free, as a bonus to those who bought my book or my CD(s) - as I don't have to pay royalties on things that I give away. I am sorry that I am no longer able or willing to give my work away. If you want to buy a book or CD, please visit my website at
www.michaeldimin.com
Mike Dimin
