How is tab downloading that much different from music sharing? If you only like one song by a band, and as such wouldn't buy an album, if you download the tab neither the band nor the company that owns the publishing rights gets any compensation.
Opinions?
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Tab on the Internet is usually transposed by an individual by ear. I believe that makes it OK. And since tab is used to play the tune yourself, that also makes it OK. Downloading the original song, as played by the original artist, is copyright infringement. That's not OK.
'Course I could be pullin' all of that outta my butt though.
"Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution"
tab is an interpretation which isn't owned by anyone but whoever interpretated it that way. Downloading commercially availlable sheet music is a different story though. You don't steal someone's car but you can take a look at it and try to build one yourself.
It was a bit before my time as a guitarist, but the lawyer who spearheaded the neutering of Napster sharpened his legal knives by carving up OLGA, the OnLine Guitar Archive, a few years before. The arguments were pretty much the same, I think.
Most of the tab I've seen floating around the Web now is horribly bad, so much so that I truly suspect music publishers are hiring people to post bad tab.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Arjen's right, if you were downlaoding "official" sheet music it would be illegal but tab is not. Half it's wrong anyway.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
It was a bit before my time as a guitarist, but the lawyer who spearheaded the neutering of Napster sharpened his legal knives by carving up OLGA, the OnLine Guitar Archive, a few years before. The arguments were pretty much the same, I think.
Most of the tab I've seen floating around the Web now is horribly bad, so much so that I truly suspect music publishers are hiring people to post bad tab.
I find it interesting that OLGA is back and no one (lawyers that is) seems to have noticed.
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It was about using the lyrics and chords. If they only gave the first words of each sentence they were allowed to continue.
An accurate tab is a representation of somebody else's work, so it's probably a copyright violation.
There's one small difference though... when you share a file, you're cheating both the songwriter (who is due mechanical royalties) and the band (who are due performance royalties). When you post tab, you're only ripping off the songwriter.
Most tab isn't accurate, so it's a gray area. As I remember it, OLGA got in trouble because they'd also posted full lyrics - a clear violation.
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Thats like saying putting song lyrics up on a site could be illegal... We dont need the world to be swamped down with yet more legal nitpicking :?
There are an awful lot of song lyrics posted on the Web. A lot more accurate than the tab, too.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
I think therein lied the rub.
The lyrics are the lyrics. They can't be construed as an interpretation.
So where, legally, does that leave the Easy Song Database, then? Or David's lesson interpretations? How does the "disclaimer" work? (These files are the author's own interpretation etc...) Am I in breach of copyright if I post a tab on the ESD?
Yours worriedly,
Vic.
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
do like olga and don't post all the lyrics
You could've told me that 20-odd songs ago!!!
:D :D :D
Seriously, if we use the same disclaimer David does on his lessons, does that mean anything legally? Because if it does, I'm going to have to trawl through virtually every page of the ESD and cut-and-paste that disclaimer on everything I've ever posted.....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Seriously, if we use the same disclaimer David does on his lessons, does that mean anything legally?
It might, and it might not.
My understanding of copyright disputes is that a lot of them hinge on 'fair use'. Even though you own the song you've written, there are times when courts consider it fair for someone to use a part of your work.
Examples might be quoting a book in a review - a direct quote of a couple sentences is fair use; putting in a couple chapters verbatim would be a clear violation.
There's a whole list of factors courts have considered in figuring out what's fair use and what isn't, and education is one of them. A teacher who photocopies an article for use in a class discussion might be protected under fair use.
If it came down to putting it before a judge, David probably gets more benefit from the disclaimer than a tabber would - his articles have a clear educational purpose.
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