From the BBC. This is getting quite ridiculous.

Song sites face legal crackdown

The music industry is to extend its copyright war by taking legal action against websites offering unlicensed song scores and lyrics.
The Music Publishers' Association (MPA), which represents US 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".

Bitter battles

The move comes after several years of bitter legal battles against unauthorised services allowing users to download recordings for free.

Publishing companies have taken action against websites in the past, but this will be the first co-ordinated legal campaign by the MPA.

The MPA would target "very big sites that people would think are legitimate and very, very popular", Mr Keiser said.

"The Xerox machine was the big usurper of our potential income," he said. "But now the internet is taking more of a bite out of sheet music and printed music sales so we're taking a more proactive stance."

Music publishers and songwriters will consider all tools under the law to stop this illegal behaviour

David Israelite
National Music Publishers' Association
David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers' Association, added his concerns.

"Unauthorised use of lyrics and tablature deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living, and is no different than stealing," he said.

"Music publishers and songwriters will consider all tools under the law to stop this illegal behaviour."

Sandro del Greco, who runs Tabhall.co.uk, said the issue was not serious enough to warrant jail time and sites like his were not necessarily depriving publishers of income.

Learn

"I play the drums mainly but I play the guitar as well. I run the website and I still buy the [tab] books," he said.

"The tabs online aren't deadly accurate so if someone really wants to know it they'll buy the book.

"But most of the bands I listen to don't have tab books to buy so if you get them online, that's the only way you can really learn it unless you work it out yourself."

The campaign comes after lyric-finding software PearLyrics was forced off the internet by a leading music publishing company, Warner Chappell.

'No alternative'

PearLyrics worked with Apple's iTunes, searching the internet to find lyrics for songs in a user's collection.

"I just don't see why PearLyrics should infringe the copyright of Warner Chappell because all I'm doing is searching publicly-available websites," PearLyrics developer Walter Ritter said.

"It would be different if they had an alternative service that also provided lyrics online and also integrated [with iTunes] like PearLyrics did. But they don't offer anything like that at all."

A Warner Chappell statement said the company wanted to ensure songwriters were "fairly compensated for their works and that legitimate sites with accurate lyrics are not undermined by unlicensed sites".

"We have requested that PearWorks provide us with information regarding the sources of their lyrics, and have further asked that they discontinue the service if these sources are operating without a licence."

Culture Belongs to Everyone!

Things do get sort of prickly when you want to talk about who "owns" a song. Indeed the author should be credited with his work, but does that mean that the listener gives up all rights to that music as well? As music lovers we all have "our songs", those pieces of music that have moved our spirits to finer things and have become a part of who we are. Must we then give up those rights?

Who said you had any right?
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Robert Nozick! I am an end not a means! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Isn't the publishing of a work in the aural tradition a valid and willful transfer of holdings?

A musician writes a song, and then the music, and then pays to have it recorded, pays to cover of CD artwork pays for the CD, I reckon that musician could rightfully say he owns the song, someone uploads it and everyone gets it for free. or better than that someone else downloads it and sells it dirt cheap because they have not had the recording overheads the musician has had to pay!!! who loses their 'rights',? MP3's and
copied tabs are stealing the livelihoods off musicians, as are other musicians who copy and record
without permission or credit, to those whose talent created that peice of music in the first place.

I dont play an instrument but forgive my thinking.....how in fucks name can tabs be stealing from a fucking artist? Next we wont be able to whistle or sing along to a tune. The tabs are created when the artist writes a song, correct? They then record and release the song. Profiting from people buying it or whatever. But what tends to happen, and this is just me using common sense so it might not make much sense to the P-C brigade of the 21st century, but if the music is on a CD and can be purchased by anyone, chances are that the artist wont lose money from that fan plucking away at a few strings on the guitar to pass the time. Tis is fecking ridiculous.

Cant even believe I'm gettin so worked up because I dont even play an instrument any more, but its such an infringement upon people, we'll be getting taxed for breathing air soon, stealin all the pollutants from the car companies when their exhausts give out fumes.


edit - the same goes for lyrics as well. Ye can hear them with yer own two ears so what difference does it make if you can read them as well. Perhaps theres a song and theres one or two lines you cant make out because of some bellowing guitar riff or crashing bassline, and then ye read the lyrics on a webpage and the song takes on a whole new meaning for you and out you go to buy the full album.

i AM a musician and i can say that i gladly offer tabs of all my basslines to anyone interested...tabs helped me learning to play and inspired me to make up my own lines. there is no commercial element to online tabs. you download them, print them, get into your band room and start playing...you won't make money by covering other artists' songs after you practiced them with their tabs...i think they are just afraid of missing the money they could make with all those bloody books...but someone show me a tab book of an underground band I (!!!) adore...see! i say : INDUSTRY, make things cheaper and people won't need to find other ways to their share of culture...

GG

I'll give you another example:

Here in Belgium (and in other countries) we students have 'always' had our traditions and culture: songs, evenings where there is singing but organised in a very special way called 'cantus'.
There is actually a description of it in in Wikipedia:
Cantus on Wikipedia
Although it's not quite accurate...

Now, to make my point: Some of these texts have been printed in a book that's has been copyrighted. No problem with that. But some of the songs were almost forgotten and somebody looked up how they were sung. He did a lot of work for that all right. But he copyrighted the melodies! I mean: It is our common heritage, it's not for sale! That's problem 1.
Problem 2 is that on those nights where we have a 'cantus' (we all sit along and drink and sing, so no music), we are actually susceptible to being fined!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) Why? Because we are singing songs with copyrighted melodies on a public event! It's 20-50 (mostly) people singing, drinking and having fun in a hall... All 'baptised' students are in principle mostly welcome, so they call it public.
I know a 'president' of a student's club who once had a visit by a controller of the music industry and was fined because they were singing copyrighted songs!!! I think that's outrageous...

Do you actually know that when you are singing a song in public (just think about football fans e.a.), you can actually be fined?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

I think it's a typical thing of our modern world and it's sick desire of commercialising every single thing on this globe and around. In developing countries, the WTO is forcing third world countries to privatise the distribution of drinking water. What's next? Pay for the last bit of unpolluted air you inhale because you emit CO2??

All right: Downloading is stealing, but the music industry is all so a bunch of conmen regarding how they deal with their artists and customers... Not to mention their mad prices...

There is also another point of view from the artist's side: In Belgium there is a popular pop/rock band (and many others in other countries) who's encouraging the downloading of their music, they even added a blank CD to their latest album. Just to make a statement: Copy our music. Let everybody hear it! Share it with everybody...

Culture should not only be for the minority that's able to pay for it... Sadly, everything in this world is about cash. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

We should start some sort of resistance group. Boycott music industry, create our own music, sell albums but not copyrighting it so that everyone could either buy or get it for free (or sth of the kind). Supposing that more and more artists would do that and that no one ever bought copyrighted stuffs, the music industry would have to stop fooling around or die.

Come on, volunteer for writing music and lyrics. I can't write any music but I can sing and I offer my voice - though it is not such a great one - to whoever wants to give it a try.

Actually, let's copyright it before the music industry steals it from us and copyrights it. But let's decide we're not suing or giving fines to anyone for downloading it, or singing it in public.

bass for free from me there!

Pathetic..

yep, its pretty pathetic alright. Welcome to the world of Corporate Greed.

worst part is.... Its happening everywhere.