Comments on: Music Publishers Now Say Teaching Someone To Play A Song Is Copyright Infringement

By: Upickreviews

Upickreviews — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:21:17 +0000

I think guitar tabs have to be free for everyone without any restriction.

By: curiosity26

curiosity26 — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:22:33 +0000

How do we protest this? I used to run a tab site, which still has OLGA connections, and I think MPA has gone too far. How can I get the musicians in my area to protest this?

By: crazyoldman

crazyoldman — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:20:24 +0000

I wonder when they’ll start coming after people showing other people how to play songs with video on the Internet. It’s only going to get more ridiculous.

By: liamroy

liamroy — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:52:45 +0000

In my humble opinion, I believe that if the person showing guitar tabs is not paid for it, it cant be infringing on copyright laws…:)

By: Sound

Sound — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:41:49 +0000

I think Gregory is correct in saying Copyright can’t be weakend, it can only expire. In my opinion Guitar Tabs have to be free for everyone without restrictions.

By: chris

chris — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 08:07:20 +0000

I have been a musician and music teacher for many years. I will never, never again buy any sheet music, CDs or anything from any major music company involved in this practices. Music is culture, culture is mankind, but this industries are just vultures picking profits they have not earned, profits they often do not give to the real artists. Not one manager of the music industry has produced anything worth conserving, they are just parasites. So I will keep to the classics, the indies and make my own stuff, and I am never going to buy or teach or make own of my students buy a single piece of music ownd by a major industry.

By: johnzo

johnzo — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 12:09:44 +0000

i dont play cover songs, i exclusivley write and perform my own work, but i also believe that if someone loves a song i wrote enough to want to play, id just hand over the sheet music(copy protected of course!)and say "have at it" and be flattered. if the company's representing all of these musicians are speaking for them, then its just a product , screw the talent, hard work,and passion put into a piece, they might as well be manufacturing dog food for all i care. They pull this crap off and i will never buy a major artists cd ever again. Much luck to you Rob, Let us know if we can do anything to help with research or anything, i do hope all of us can do something much more than be steamed about this.

By: Guitarweek Inc.

Guitarweek Inc. — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 14:36:52 +0000

I am working on a songs database that people will be able to post ‘copyrighted’ songs, We stand on the ‘fair use’ act and will fight anything that comes up.

Some of the transcription sites are clearly not for ‘educational’ uses, I may even prime the pump with some of the hot songs mentioned in some of the bigger lawsuits. Our site revolves around ‘learning’ how to play guitar which is a big floatie for us – that is if we ever have to use it…

Michael Mettura
Guitarweek Inc.

By: Jokimoto

Jokimoto — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:58:13 +0000

No offense, epic1, but that’s a lousy argument, as likely any song on recording of any type is copyrighted. Just because someone hasn’t published an official transcript of it doesn’t change that fact, so if you download any of those official transcripts w/out paying you ARE stealing. I don’t do that. I download oodles of crappy home-brew’s.
And if you’ve managed to learn “everything” from those bands on the shelf at your local store, you wouldn’t have a very hard time figuring out flea’s baseline on your own, especially one on video where you can watch his fingers.
I see your point…to a point. Theft, though, is theft. However, 99% of internet guitar-tabs are not thieved from anyone, which is the main point.

By: epic1

epic1 — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 23:47:54 +0000

you can find zeppelin, floyd, ccr, metalica, simon and garfunkel, etc in a music shop. what about when i learn everything from the 15 or so bands on the sheet music shelf. what if i wanna learn some elliot smith, testament, meshugga, mastadon, larry coryell, or the pixies? i’ll quit complaining about copyright “violations” when the music publishers actually posess what we’re supposedly stealing from them. “oh really mr. publisher, i should buy from you? very well, i’ll take the 1993 baseline that flea played on saturday night live one night only when he played bass for janes addiction for the gig. you dont say? dont have that one?”

By: Jokimoto

Jokimoto — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 19:02:50 +0000

That last one’s mine….but u can use it, lol…..

By: Jokimoto

Jokimoto — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 15:17:02 +0000

Would you honestly assert that this is a “complete, performable arrangement”?:

E——-5-7—–7-|-8—–8-2—–2-|-0———0—–|—————–|
B—–5—–5—–|—5——-3—–|—1—1—–1—|-0-1-1———–|
G—5———5—|—–5——-2—|—–2———2-|-0-2-2———–|
D-7——-6——-|-5——-4——-|-3—————|—————–|
A—————–|—————–|—————–|-2-0-0—0–/8-7-|
E—————–|—————–|—————–|—————–|

E———7—–7-|-8—–8-2—–2-|-0———0—–|—————–|
B——-5—5—–|—5——-3—–|—1—1—–1—|-0-1-1———–|
G—–5——-5—|—–5——-2—|—–2———2-|-0-2-2———–|
D—7—–6——-|-5——-4——-|-3—————|—————–|
A-0—————|—————–|—————–|-2-0-0——-0-2-|
E—————–|—————–|—————–|—————–|

There’s not even a time signature, for god’s sake! Type “stariway to heaven tab” in google and that’s the first link you’ll get. I defy anyone to arrange a “complete performance” of the song from what you see above.
Should an art teacher be sued for instructing a student how to paint in the manner of Picasso?
English Lit. teachers had best watch their backs, lest their students emulate Thoreau so thoroughly as to invite prosecution by the “proper authorities.”

By: Orlandus

Orlandus — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 14:57:07 +0000

“If a web-site were to post, say, a scanned copy of a Hal Leonard tablature book in PDF form, that’s most certainly copyright infringment if it’s done w/out permission.”

Correct. That infringes both the copyright in the musical work and the copyright in the tab arrangement.

“If a web-site posts a homemade “guesstimate” (sometimes remarkably accurate, more often simply adequate as a jump-start) that is certainly not infringement.”

Not correct. While it doesn’ t infringe the copyright in the Hal Leonard tab arrangement, it still very clearly infringes the copyright in the original musical work — possibly you could try to assert a “fair use” defense, but that is (at best) highly dubious for a derivative work that is (1) a complete, performable arrangement — even if a bad one! — of the entire musical work and (2) published and readily available to the public at large.

FWIW, IANAL, etc.

By: Jokimoto

Jokimoto — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 05:36:27 +0000

If a web-site were to post, say, a scanned copy of a Hal Leonard tablature book in PDF form, that’s most certainly copyright infringment if it’s done w/out permission.
If a web-site posts a homemade “guesstimate” (sometimes remarkably accurate, more often simply adequate as a jump-start) that is certainly not infringement.
Most tabs I’ve seen are clumsy .txt files, most w/only the bare bones of the song figured out anyway.
This is simply greed, as if ticket prices in the hundreds of dollars weren’t enough.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 00:52:11 +0000

Posting song tablature on the internet is in no way different from say….burning a CD. Actually, it is because it’s not as bad.

But how is learning songs online different from figuring them out yourself. It doesn’t hurt tablature books because tab books are so much better then any post on the internet. Even if someone posts the same tab from a book online, they wont be able to do it as easily or in depth as it is in a book.

For those of you who say “figure it out yourself,” I personally can’t. I don’t want to sit down for a few hours just to learn a short riff I heard in a Chili Peppers song. If I want to learn a song in depth to play for my band, then yeah I’ll do it myself, and use the tabs as a guideline. This is unfair, and is a learning process and tool.

Bottom line: attacking a non-profit user run guitar tab organization is extremely low.