MPA wants to jail owners of tablature sites

[zanzibar]

MPA wants to jail owners of tablature sites

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4508158.stm




Stupid lawyers.  This is an American thing, but I\'m sure it\'s of general interest.

[Keyaz]

I\'m not really surprised, greed for money.

hey, did oyu hear about that new tax plan they want to use on air?  :rolleyes:

[Guest]

not entirely certain of the legality of the matter ...but if it is copyrighted material that is being displayed, wouldn\'t you need the artists\' permission? (and I know, it is only an interpretation of the artists work, but it still seems applicable)


forgot to say that I am totally against prosecuting people for putting up tablature

[eggplantboy]

Hello,

Music is in a sad state these days. I can just about see street musicians being arrested for not paying the Gershwin estate for the rights to play Summertime.

I think the law ought to consider the long history of music\'s oral tradition. Once a song is out there in the world, it is, traditionally, as good as public domain. All of this legal action is a very new phenomenon.

[Efflixi Aduro]

ok what the hell thats stupid

i use tab sites all the time the music industry is full of sh*t

[Kythag]

The trend comes from the idea that the internet has the ability to be regulated.  You don\'t see them going after people recording music from a radio.  The tablature example is just something else they want to regulate.

The next step:  They come into your home and bust you for teaching somebody how to play a copyrighted song.  [/sarcasm]I mean they aren\'t the ones that made the song, so they have no right to teach someone how to play it.[/end sarcasm]


Greedy record companies, I hate em.

[dragonfire999]

ultimate guitar and tabrobot are the best, and i cant imagine them being shut down. Shouldnt artists be happy people like them that much that they go learn songs by them? This is retarded.

[Godfrey]

Originally posted by dragonfire999
ultimate guitar and tabrobot are the best, and i cant imagine them being shut down. Shouldnt artists be happy people like them that much that they go learn songs by them? This is retarded.

This has nothing to do with the artists; they get very little money from published books of music and tablature.  All the profit goes to organizations like the MPA and ASCAP, which is why they\'re so keen to kill off sites which might hurt their sales.  (Why shell out the cash for a book if you can just call up the chords on your Web browser for free?)  It\'s all about the benjamins.

Lyric and tab sites get shut down all the time, usually with nothing more than a threat from a lawyer.  And it\'s only going to get worse, as long as Congress is willing to extend the duration of copyright protection every time Mickey Mouse is about to go into the public domain, or pass laws like the DMCA which gut the \"fair use\" provisions of 17 USC 107 -- with which tablature sites might once have mounted a defense.