Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Guitartabs.com Suspends Under Legal Pressure

Posted by kdawson on from the not-another-mpaa dept.

Music publishers are stepping up their campaign to remove guitar tablature from the Net. Recently Guitartabs.com received a nastygram from lawyers for the National Music Publishers Association and The Music Publishers Association of America. These organizations want to stretch the definition of their intellectual property to include by-ear transcriptions of music. Guitartabs.com is currently not offering tablature while the owner evaluates his legal options.

2 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Copyright delenda est by russotto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The letter essentially says "Die. Now." And faced with overwhelming force, that's just what guitartabs.com did. The ugliest part of the letter, though, is probably this:

    "Under the circumstances, both the transcriber of the compositions and you as the owner of the website are copyright infringers."

    And they're right. Under copyright law, merely transcribing a song by ear (even without sending it to a website) is copyright infringement. Specifically, unauthorized creation of a derivative work. That is an illustration of how nasty and flawed the entire system of copyright is.

  2. Culture Growth by mux2000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't think this is legal, but nevermind that. This isn't Right(tm).

    How does new music come to be? Do you think a good (and creative) musician got to be that good all by himself? The way I learned music is (1) by listening to good music, (2) by trying to figure out how the piece worked and what made it satisfying and (3) trying to recreate the same effect on my own. Most of the times, on at least one of those steps, I needed somebody else's help. Either in getting to know new music, in figuring out the chords or in learning to play in new ways.

    I couldn't have played the way I do without this help, and I have OLGA to thank for a large piece of that. Of course, I got a lot of help from my friends and teachers, but the sort of collaboration that is possible on the net is, I believe, a real boon for every musician, of every level, from beginner to professional. Then again, who's to say if my friend telling me (or writing down for me to play) the chords to a copyrighted song is legal!?

    My point being, this kind of litigation has only one effect, and that is to suffocate creativity and the growth of our culture.