I feel like this is kind of a problem with our platform (and most digital music) in general! when the music creation process involves lots of technology and it isn't obviously clear what is making the sounds and how those sounds are being controlled, it becomes really easy to hide underneath an air of authority with regards to technology. basically people think that our setups are too complicated to explain so they don't ask us, and we can continue playing a song off our iPod because we're the EXPERTS OF COURSE WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING.
i'm not trying to say that maybe we brought this on ourselves, but maybe a better way to rectify this (and future plagarists) is to try AS HARD AS WE CAN to inform people about what goes into the music creation process! explain to people that using old video game hardware to make music isn't rocket science and is, in fact, really easy!
people like this can actually gain a following because the general public doesn't really know how chipmusic is made. encouraging people to try it out isn't that hard, and it leads to a general knowledge of digital music and digital music technology! which is important. I know that every time someone comes up to me after a show and asks how I do it, I explain it to them and then add the disclaimer that it's not as complicated as it looks/sounds! and then refer them to here or 8bc for information
people know about guitars. they know that if you pluck the strings then they vibrate and that makes sounds. so it's really easy to tell when someone is faking it because there's a general knowledge of that music instrument that everyone can draw on. it's perhaps more difficult to instill a general knowledge of digital music technology but if we're more open about showing people (and I'm not saying that we're not!) then stuff like this will get less and less common as more people realize what we do!