OLGA offline

Ehm, isn;t Olga about chords? And didn;t they even cut the lyrics down to just the first few words of each sentence? How can that be considered a copyright infringement? I can understand why people don't appreciate it when some folks transform notation into tab and dump it online but this is nonsense. I guess...

At this point in the arguement I think I'm agreeing with Nick. It's not standard notation it's more like a drawing of a song. To me its like saying a drawing of a cat is a cat. In order to make sense of the tab you have to already know the song. In my case what I do is get the song on Itunes, get some tab and go.

To me its like saying a drawing of a cat is a cat.
If the cat is copyrighted, and clones of the cat - and all derivative cat works, including the cat's likeness in a drawing - are forbidden under the ICCA (International Cat Copyright Act), then yes, a drawing of a cat is indeed a cat for purposes of upholding the copyright.

Stupid? Yes, but that's about where we are with current copyright law as applied to online guitar tablature.

Well.....what if I just drew 6 circles on one side, three triangles on the other, 10 single quotes, 6 straight lines, an upsidedown T and a big fat S?

Sure you could put them together as a cat, but without direction to put them together they are just lines.

Numbers on lines without a meaningful system for beats, durations, or speed must be a learning tool, 'cause it ain't notation.

I dunno. It's just an idea.

Several groups got involved with the RIAA thing. Has anyone stepped up on this tab issue?

the questio is where you draw the line. you could say that because a song sticks in your head that it's a copyright violation.

But what if a tree fell in the woods on top of bunch of ink and paper and the resulting mess looked like the first four bars to "Hard Day's Night" - would the owner of the land need to provide royalties to Michael Jackson?

if he tried to sell it on ebay he would!

the questio is where you draw the line. you could say that because a song sticks in your head that it's a copyright violation.
Dunno about that, but we should be allowed to sue, or better still shoot, people who create annoying jingles that stick in your head. Mental Trespassing or something.

*walks off humming "I love horses, best of the animals, I love horses, they're my friends" over and over and over and over...*

the questio is where you draw the line.

Unfortunately, the line has already been drawn (copyright law) and it won't change unless it is challenged and can somehow be deemed not applicable to the free online distribution of guitar tablature. These guys might be onto something: http://www.guitarzone.com/musato/
In response (to the threat of legal action,) GTU's site owner immediately created the Music Student and Teacher Organization (MuSATO) to rally support to keep Internet guitar tablature free of charge on the basis of fair use in education. MuSATO argues that Internet guitar tablature does not inifringe upon publishers' copyrights because it does not come from pre-existing printed resources and are not entirely accurate representations of songs. Furthermore, Internet guitar tablature enables an eduational relationship between music student (the one who downloads tabs) and music teacher (the one who created the tab). Guitar tab websites foster this educational relationship by making this tablature freely available to the public. MuSATO is still in development.

the questio is where you draw the line.

Unfortunately, the line has already been drawn (copyright law) and it won't change unless it is challenged and can somehow be deemed not applicable to the free online distribution of guitar tablature. These guys might be onto something: http://www.guitarzone.com/musato/
In response (to the threat of legal action,) GTU's site owner immediately created the Music Student and Teacher Organization (MuSATO) to rally support to keep Internet guitar tablature free of charge on the basis of fair use in education. MuSATO argues that Internet guitar tablature does not inifringe upon publishers' copyrights because it does not come from pre-existing printed resources and are not entirely accurate representations of songs. Furthermore, Internet guitar tablature enables an eduational relationship between music student (the one who downloads tabs) and music teacher (the one who created the tab). Guitar tab websites foster this educational relationship by making this tablature freely available to the public. MuSATO is still in development.

great idea, everybody should join now!

I think it's interesting how they manage to write a law that cover 95 pages and more exaktly use 45 578 words just to write "Its illegal to make illegal copies". :D Wonder if someone really read it trough.

I must say I agree with Nick. A tab is just a description of a song. If I wrote (as an example): "'Tribute' is about two guys that played the best song in the world along with a devil on a long and lonesome road" it wouldn't violate any copyrigt laws (i think :? ). In just the same way (and to often as accurate) a tab is describing a song, not copying it.

I have an idea of how to fight those lawyers. :lol:
If someone write a tab and write it is forbidden to copy it and then everybody else copy and post it. Then those lawyers have to sue the whole world (or at least 12841 perons at the date being). I hope no one here belive that free tabs are violating the law.

"Intimidation is 9/10 of the law." (sic)

:evil:
I think this utter crap. I do not agrre with the dying music industry and their gestapo scare tactics. This is yet another feeble attempt to get us, the music enjoying public, to "fall back in line." I question if the NMPA and the MPA actually have a case. I think they are just following the lead of the RIAA and their lawsuits of music downloaders. It was discovered that all these downloaders had to do was fight back and the RIAA stopped all their threats. Their case was as shaky as the records sales. We need to come together and figure out a way to protest this. I am at a loss on what to do, but I am sure there are smart people out there who can come up with something. It is time the music industry here us.

You know there is an argument to be made that if we don't protect the intellectual property rights of others there will be no incentive to create new work.