Music Industry Targets Guitar Tab Sites

August 14, 2006 at 1:44 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Categories: Big Media v Internet, DMCA-like Laws

In response to DMCA take-down letters sent by the NMPA and the MPA, guitar tablature sites “Guitar Tab Universe” and the “Online Guitar Archive” have shut down their online tab sites. This follows recent successful efforts by the music industry to shut down music lyric websites.

Sources: ars technica | | New York Times Pittsburgh Tribute-Review | Cybergrass | Lowellsun.com | Audiophile Audition | Music Student & Teather Org | Guitar Tab Universe Statement | Music Publishers’ Association Statement

Related Posts:

Music Industry Targets Guitar Tab Sites (August 14, 2006)
Lyrics Dustup Ends in Apology (December 16, 2005)

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5 comments

1 Kevin { 10.03.07 at 4:42 am }: This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life….ever.
So i kinda get the tabs things, trying to reproduce the artists sound maybe playing a cover gig getting money for material that’s not yours. But they shut down a lyrics site??!! What the hell man The sings/ song writers who wrote these songs, wrote them because they have something to say. So what if you miss a line you’re not aloud to look it up on the internet??? give me a break please.
2 Smart websites make money { 11.12.07 at 7:58 am }: This is very unpleasant, I was getting ready to start such a website, now I have to think twice.
3 Songwriter { 11.27.07 at 6:10 am }: I am so happy someone is fighting for the rights of songwriters!
I teach piano to many who wants to play for church, but they will not purchase
guitar tablature or regular music notation songbooks and sheet music!

God’s People? How can you play for God and steal songwriters songs?

I was guilty of this too. I can write the chords of any song I hear. But the thing that bothers me is, we didn’t get permission!

I’ve decided to stop doing this and ask my clients to purchase the music instead to support the artist. But will they do it? No!

With websites (especially black gospel music sites) that post songs illegally, what will the artist do? And these sites receive donations for their postings too!

We need sites like this one that will fight to educate the music industry that this is a form of thief. Piracy I believe it is called.

So, I salute you and this site!
4 Dale Dietrich { 12.13.07 at 12:51 am }: Songwriter, Clearly copying and posting sheet-music is a form of copyright infringement.

Tabulatures are NOT sheet - music. They are nothing more than chord sequences. They do not, for example, provide information on the proper strumming or string plucking. It’s unclear to me whether posting tabulatures is a form of copyright infringement.

…Dale
5 Tab Lover { 02.21.08 at 1:58 am }: What Is Not Protected By Copyright

Ideas, Methods, or Systems are not subject to copyright protection. Copyright protection, therefore, is not available for: ideas or procedures for doing, making, or building things; scientific or technical methods or discoveries; business operations or procedures; mathematical principles; formulas, algorithms; or any other concept, process, or method of operation.

Section 102 of the copyright law, title 17, United States Code, clearly expresses this principle: “In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.”

Guitar Tabs are a very crude way of explaining how one would play the chords for a song. It does not provide rhythmic notation and has NO commercial value. Even the MPA has a clear guideline on Sheet Music Notation: http://www.mpa.org/music_notation/

Further, it is used for educational purposes…. sorry it’s not a ‘formal’ setting, but it is none-the-less educational.

The MPA is only interested in protecting the SHEET MUSIC PRINT industry. If they did care about the artists and songwriters, they would give them more money (they give next to nothing) and they would move the great majority of their business ONLINE. Why the hell, in this day and age, do we need to print sheet music other than for Orchestral performances? Guitar players are much better served with an inexpensive, online version. If the MPA would pull their heads out of their asses, they would sell official sheet music/tabs for $0.25 or so. They would rake in hundreds of millions. Instead, we have MusicNotes.com which has a horrible navigation and they sell each song for $4.95. One song! WTF? In 2007 they did a whopping $2.8 million in business. That’s the entire online music industry… split that sum up with all the artists and you can see we are talking peanuts. Yet, how much have the lawyers made from sending out all the Cease and Desist letters? Could the artists and songwriters be taken care any more poorly? I doubt it.

Lastly, if you give away the tabs for free you CULTIVATE musicans in huge numbers. Those people are life long consumers of musicial instruments, official sheet music, CD’s, instructional DVD’s and concerts… they are the hardcore, addicted consumer… and you want to burn them?