Lyrics and tabs are forbidden.

[Fubonis]

Whole article.

The music industry is to extend its copyright war by taking legal action against websites offering unlicensed song scores and lyrics.

The US Music Publishers' Association (MPA), which represents sheet music companies, will launch its first campaign against such sites in 2006.

MPA president Lauren Keiser said he wanted site owners to be jailed.

He said unlicensed guitar tabs and song scores were widely available on the internet but were "completely illegal".

Mr Keiser said he did not just want to shut websites and impose fines, saying if authorities can "throw in some jail time I think we'll be a little more effective".

...

I wonder if they will ban karaoke, too, but then they will have to worry about the Japanese retaliating with organized mecha assaults.

[BlackHoleMars]

it's sad...

most of the tabs are simply the interpretations of guitarists who were listening to the songs as they figured them out.

What's next?

[Yawner]

just shows how money grabbing some people are.. I mean lets look at the facts.. I was watching MTV the other day and it came up with the stat that Britney Spears grossed nearly $150m just doing tours.. I know that alot of artists will never get that kind of success but they are getting paid ridiculous amounts of money for something that the majority of artists is their perfect job and a job that seems pretty simple.

Annoys me when all the money is just going to go into record producers back pockets and never see the light of day again..

Yawnster

[cric-f1]

this sucks my muic site will be in a bit of pickle

[Hynee]

Yeah, that's really s#@^. Most guitarists will get their start from tab sheets, and most will get it from the internet. They're just hurting their grass roots. As for lyrics, it's ridiculous. Who can rip them off from this? They're just hurting pub singers who can't work out certain lines. It's crazy, they're just hurting their grass roots now.

[Swizec]

The reason for the decision of banning public tabs and lyrics is quite simple.

Now they will be able to profit from them, simple as that. A record company puts up a website with tabs and lyrics and you ahve to pay a fee to register or you don't get any tabs nor lyrics. This will ensure you get almost perfect tabs as they will probably be writen by the artists themselves, or there's bound to be someone in the whole company that knows them, and it will also ensure the record companies' profits are skyhigh.

As for what was said about lyrics, if you really really want them and can't get them online, almost every album sold has lyrics in the little booklette, hey whadya know, it can even be borrowed from a friend who has it.

[Nephrus]

What about jailtime for those who really deserve it, not 15 year olds who have talent in writing music from listening to a song.

Really.

[MHobbit]

Hmm, MPA == RIAA == plain stupid ...

Wow, "illegally distributed tabs and lyrics" can really detract from the industry's potential revenue. Who knows, instead of actually buying one of their songs, you could be humming along to the radio. 8O

[Northern]

They can't ban it. It's not legal. The song notes don't belong to the author but just the record so they can DREAM of banning those things.

However, if they do...
We just need to launch a campagin against such things. Seriously, they may be rich, but we're the majority.

If this comes out, I personally start a campagin against them urging people to BOYCOTT THEIR SERVICES.
If not music, then the tabs/lyrics sites. The music industry has been pissing me and a lot of other people off lately, but this time they went out of their way.

If the government gives them RIGHTS TO BAN TAB/LYRICS SITES WHICH PEOPLE FIGURED OUT ON THIER OWN, then we certainly have the right to boycott them.

[drathbun]

If the government gives them RIGHTS TO BAN TAB/LYRICS SITES WHICH PEOPLE FIGURED OUT ON THIER OWN, then we certainly have the right to boycott them.

But that's the thing... you didn't figure it out, you just recreated something that was already done. That doesn't give you the right to royalties or anything else. If you figure it out, congratulations. But figuring it out and then giving it away for free (when it is a copywritten resource and therefore protected) is not, despite what you say, legal.

I'm not saying I'm a fan of music companies / record companies / whatever. I'm not. But what you're saying is just flat out incorrect.

If you write your own song, then yes, you have the right to do whatever you want to do with it. But writing someone else's song because you "figured out on your own" doesn't give you the right to redistribute that information.

[FF8Jake`]

Going after tablature is stupid, because half of it is not the same as what the actual guitar players do. Anyone who's tried free tablature on the web should know this. Most people who learn to play the songs are fans and they're just going to turn them off from buying more.

They'll never be able to pull it off, and they know it. It's just a scare tactic to make people who own these sites pull out, so they can get some of their song book revenue back.

But figuring it out and then giving it away for free (when it is a copywritten resource and therefore protected) is not, despite what you say, legal.

It's a little more difficult than that. Though the general "sound" may be the same, most guitar players differ a lot in style and technique. If I find small licks in a song, a cool sounding riff that I throw in along with my own stuff, or even a small arpeggio that was used in a different song, does that make my works any less "me"?

[Northern]

If the government gives them RIGHTS TO BAN TAB/LYRICS SITES WHICH PEOPLE FIGURED OUT ON THIER OWN, then we certainly have the right to boycott them.

But that's the thing... you didn't figure it out, you just recreated something that was already done. That doesn't give you the right to royalties or anything else. If you figure it out, congratulations. But figuring it out and then giving it away for free (when it is a copywritten resource and therefore protected) is not, despite what you say, legal.

Right, but the song or the melody ISN'T COPYRIGHTED. Only the record you'll make is copyrighted.
Will you now say that covers are illegal? If write a song, and then sing it, I have the ultimate right to "figure it out", and then sing it as my own and I'm not even law bound to state that it's just a cover of YOUR song. Bands do it just out of respect.

[geocator]

Right, but the song or the melody ISN'T COPYRIGHTED. Only the record you'll make is copyrighted.
Will you now say that covers are illegal? If write a song, and then sing it, I have the ultimate right to "figure it out", and then sing it as my own and I'm not even law bound to state that it's just a cover of YOUR song. Bands do it just out of respect.

Umm, actaully it is, it is the lyrics and the arangment that is copyrighted. The record itself is only copyrighted do to that. You might want to research copyright and what it is @_@

[Swizec]

Yeah, all the notes and lyrics are copyrighted, what you just described could go for software, paintings, everything, and we know you CAN't just trace mona lisa and sell it as your own A lot of people have gone to jail for doing such things.


But in the music business I find a wee thing a bit disturbing, it has been claimed that it is nowadays impossible to make an original melody, so where's all the copyright going to for everything the music business does? Just a wonder, copyright probably dies at some point in time right?

[Northern]

I "might not want " to research anything since I've already done it.
You can copyright a material, but you can't copyright a script.
For that you have patients which btw, don't apply to lyrics, pictures and the like.

It's like saying that it's illegal for me to make a game that has experience/levels system because it was already done by DAoC and such.


Plus, what would you consider copying? Did you know that when an artist writes a new song he or she doesn't register it anywhere. And just because an artist is famous doesn't mean his works are protected more than the works of less famous artists. How do you tell who was the first to write the song? And again, you DON'T register a song anywhere so you have no way of knowing who was the first to write it. Ones and forever - you don't copyright the lyrics.

Yeah, all the notes and lyrics are copyrighted, what you just described could go for software, paintings, everything, and we know you CAN't just trace mona lisa and sell it as your own A lot of people have gone to jail for doing such things.

Really? So I can't draw a picture of a lady looking at me? I mean, Seriously how do you tell what's original and what's not? What if I write a song that's almost the same as a famous song? Take "Nothing else matters" as an example.
I could write a song that's almost like nothing else matters but change a few words here and there and there you have it - a new song...