Record industry to shut down tab sites next???

[MattZ]

I noticed that olga.net had been down for awhile. From today's new york times:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/technolo...agewanted=print

 

 

Now the Music Industry Wants Guitarists to Stop Sharing

By BOB TEDESCHI

The Internet put the music industry and many of its listeners at odds thanks to the popularity of services like Napster and Grokster. Now the industry is squaring off against a surprising new opponent: musicians.

 

In the last few months, trade groups representing music publishers have used the threat of copyright lawsuits to shut down guitar tablature sites, where users exchange tips on how to play songs like

[poonkorama]

Thanks for sharing that article.

 

This is ludicrous. The only way the publishers' claims are valid is if:

 

1) High-quality scanned reproductions of published tabs are offered by these tab sites

2) Similarly, if tablature e-books are shared on torrent trackers / p2p networks

3) Published tabs are transcribed directly from the book, in their original format

 

Given that most tab sites host ascii-based tabs, #1 and #2 are out. Even if someone were to directly transcribe a published tab, note for note, it still wouldn't be the same as the published version (#3 is out). As someone who has written numerous tabs, I fail to see how a crappy ascii tab is the same as a high-quality printed "sheet music style" tab. 90% of the tab books I see at guitar shops are for Metal and Classic Rock bands anyway. That's great if I want to learn a Led Zeppelin riff; but for bands who are not mainstream enough to have their tabs published, online communities are the only way to find them. These tabs are almost invariably transcribed by unpaid enthusiasts with good ear/pitch who want to share something with other who are interested. I fail to see how this is infringing on any copyrights or intellectually property rights.

 

I think the MPA and NMPA are jumping on the RIAA bandwagon and blaming the community for their own diminishing revenues. Pretty pathetic, really.

[Atticus]

At first I thought this must have been an Onion piece or something.

 

how ridiculous...

[Gobias Industries]

Tabs aren't necessarily correct. The publishers are ridonkulous.

[Atticus]

Tabs aren't necessarily correct. The publishers are ridonkulous.

 

 

what a statement of truth...

[MrRain422]

Also, tab sites do nothing if not to intensify people's fandom. All they're doing with this is alienating fans, and shutting down yet another way in which people might get more entusiastic about music, and therefore more likely to buy more music.

 

In short, this is stupid.

[anodyne]

if someone publishes a book of drag the river tabs (and the band is getting their cut from the sales), i'd gladly take down my drag the river tab site. until then...

[WilcoFan]

I say we just quit music all together. Quit making it, quit listening to it, quit trading it. That way nobody gets ripped off and nobody gets their feelings hurt.

 

The reason that I make a living today is because of Olga. I used to telnet into my college's unix boxes and ftp to olga to get guitar tabs. I became a huge UNIX fan. So free tab changed my life. I doubt that buying a hardcopy of Smiths or Led Zeppelin songs would have changed my life. I would probably be working in a supermarket or something.

[quarter23cd]

Hasn't this always been an issue? I haven't visited OLGA in years, but I used to use that and some other similar sites about 5-10 years or so ago and there always used to be a sense that the sites could fold at any time because of copyright issues. Didn't OLGA even shut down for a while? The details are hazy, but I remember something like that. I dunno, maybe I'm just hallucinating. Carry on.

[MattZ]

Hasn't this always been an issue? I haven't visited OLGA in years, but I used to use that and some other similar sites about 5-10 years or so ago and there always used to be a sense that the sites could fold at any time because of copyright issues.

 

I think it has always been an issue in some form or another. For awhile, olga tried to stem the tide by restricting the reproduction of lyrics -- on the theory that the written lyrics of a song were copyrighted and to reproduce them would be an infringement.

 

As far as I am concerned though, TAB is a totally different issue. It is a fan's interpretation of a song. I would say that the vast majority of all tabs on the internet are wrong. How is an incorrect reproduction of a song be a violation of a songwriter's copyright? Not to mention, even if you put down the right tab -- note for note -- you would never reproduce the sounds that the musicians are making.

 

I think I remember in the Beatles anthology that Paul or George said that when they were kids they took a bus crosstown because they heard that someone over there knew how to play a B7 chord. We may be headed back to those days.

[WilcoFan]

I think I remember in the Beatles anthology that Paul or George said that when they were kids they took a bus crosstown because they heard that someone over there knew how to play a B7 chord. We may be headed back to those days.

 

Priceless. I never heard that. That's really neat.