So Im out of the loop I know. Between my busiest semester in school ever, real life, looking for a job when i graduate, and our vocalist being out of the country (thus not playing shows), my guitar playing has slacked a lot.

I do not have a good ear for music, nor am I classically trained. I cant read music, therefore if i ever wanna learn someone's song i go to tab sites. One site i used to go to a lot in HS had most the tabs i was looking for listed as "removed due to copyright infringement." I go to the second site, and it has a letter posted (which i posted below). The date is July so I know its been like this the entire semester. But it is still ridiculous. Any thoughts on this?

Quote :

"July 17, 2006 To all "Guitar Tab Universe" visitors: The company which owns this website has been indirectly threatened (via our ISP) with legal action by the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) as well as the Music Publishers' Association (MPA) on the basis that sharing tablature constitutes copyright infringement. At what point does describing how one plays a song on guitar become an issue of copyright infringment? This website, among other things, helps users teach eachother how they play guitar parts for many different songs. This is the way music teachers have behaved since the first music was ever created. The difference here is that the information is shared by way of a new technology: the Internet. When you are jamming with a friend and you show him/her the chords for a song you heard on the radio, is that copyright infringement? What about if you helped him/her remember the chord progression or riff by writing it down on, say, a napkin... infringement? If he/she calls you later that night on the phone or e-mails you and you respond via one of those methods, are you infringing? I don't know... but I would really like to know. If anyone has information on this, please email support@guitartabs.cc. Apparently, the NMPA/MPA believes that the Internet may be on the foul side of the legality line they would like to draw here. For me, I see no difference. It's teachers educating students and covered as a 'fair use' of the tablature. The teachers here don't even get paid nor do the students have to pay this website to access the lessons. An attack on this website is really an attack on every one of you who have told someone (in person, or via the written word, telephone, or e-mail) how you play a song on guitar. And who, especially among small websites, has the deep pockets to fight the NMPA/MPA? They use scare tactics while there is, in fact, no legal precedent on this matter (to the best of our knowledge). If you are interested in expressing your opinion to the NMPA/MPA, contact them via their respective websites. Please do not resort to vulgar language or insults. Millions of people use the Internet to learn guitar, in one form or another. It appears the NMPA/MPA and their members do not want to support us and help us further our education. To you visitors from outside the USA or UK, can you find your favorite artists' "official sheet music" at your local music store? Even in the United States and United Kingdom, we often can not. The NMPA/MPA have a choice to make: either they support us as aspiring guitarists, or they choose to alienate their customer base. To date, not one sheet music publisher has contacted this website to either inquire as to our activities or to express interest in any type of dialogue or collaboration whatsoever. All we deserve is a cold, indirect, impersonal threat without any explanation? They should embrace new technologies or else become relics of the old economy. Since I'm now 'worried' about working around tabs at all, I'm in a tough situation! Luckily, I'm fairly confident that if I alone listen to a song and then figure out how to play it by ear, I will then be able to enjoy using that knowledge to practice and improve my guitar playing skills. Is that what is necessary for everyone to do? Work these things out alone? What a sad situation. Sincerely, Rob Balch Manager of "Guitar Tab Universe" If you would like to help out and join the effort to fight for our freedom to tab and share, please check out MuSATO. You can comment on this statement and/or situation here."

12/4/2006 12:10:23 AM

I'm pretty sure they've been routinely shutting down tab sites for the last 7-8 years (that I can remember)... so it doesn't strike me as particularly new... although it definitely sucks.

12/4/2006 11:23:30 AM

[/bullshit]

12/4/2006 11:27:03 AM

It's been increasingly worse in the past six months.

12/4/2006 11:33:53 AM

its just ridiculous

12/4/2006 11:35:12 AM

Sure it's copyright infringement. Just because I listen to War and Peace on tape and type the words myself doesn't mean my finished product is a legal rip of War and Peace. That said, I use tab sites all the time.

12/4/2006 11:52:08 AM

fretplay and ultimate-guitar archive are both still around, and neither of them are going anywhere


the olga is still out there too if you search long enough, i think it's through harmony central

12/4/2006 12:53:25 PM

ultimate-guitar is russian owned or something like that so us copyright laws don't apply to them. or something. they had a big thing about it a few months ago.

[Edited on December 4, 2006 at 3:20 PM. Reason : hfds]

12/4/2006 3:08:57 PM

Yea, I've been using ultimate-guitar since OLGA pussied out and stopped posting complete lyrics

[Edited on December 4, 2006 at 3:12 PM. Reason : OLGA is pretty much how I learned guitar in the mid 90's]

12/4/2006 3:11:18 PM

whatever happened to mxtabs

12/4/2006 4:24:16 PM

I like Ultimate Guitar's mouse-over chord symbols. Not always the most complete, but they're handy for obscure chords so you don't need to go to a separate site to look them up.

12/4/2006 5:10:40 PM

yeah i found a bunch of sites having this disclaimer on and off, although i rarely look at tabs anymore.

12/4/2006 6:12:46 PM