Original songs should not be graded any differently from covers in CBs. Judge by their vocals, mix, art, animation, like any other entry. There should not be any special points for composition (cont.)..

If you want to argue that just being an original is impressive and will make the judges biased, isn't that really more of a impartiality issue? If they go strictly by the rubric, I really don't see the problem

Yes, I have a particular slant on this issue for obvious reasons. But I honestly believe that nobody who writes original music does it for extra points or to win some competition. It's 100% about creative expression