Downloading tab when you don't own the song

Is it a copyright violation if your band performs a song by an artist at a local club but doesn't pay royalties?

In the US at least, it's the owner of the venue that's responsible. If you're playing in a club, they pay an annual license to use any song in the rights organizations catalog - so they pay one fee to BMI, one to ASCAP, and maybe one to SESAC. If you put on your own show by renting a hall, you're the one on the hook, and you're supposed to get a license. I think you can get one over the web now.

Years ago when most clubs had live music, I was playing in a bar when an inspector from a royalty service showed up to make sure the club had licensed the music. I don't know if they still do that, but that's how they policed things in the 70s/80s

I think that it's similar here in Australia.

There is some sort of responsibility at the hall hire stage of things to pay a fee. I'm not sure how it's organised with regard to who actually pays and who it goes to, but it's the rough equivalent of the system that applies to copyright owners of books in libraries.

I ought to know, because I used to be involved in a musical theatre group, and we toured the productions to various country towns as well as city venues. But I just can't recall the licence details, except that it was something similar to the one NoteBoat outlined.

I don't think that any attempt is made to keep count of which actual songs are performed, the fee just goes into a general fund that is.... um... split up between copyright owners, or more likely spent on beer by somebody in the chain... :?

In the US at least, it's the owner of the venue that's responsible.

I use to own dry cleaning stores where I played music in the background. Interestingly, if it was a radio for my employees' entertainment there was no problem, but if I had fixed speakers and the music was for the entertainment of my customers (or for general ambience), then I was technically required to pay royalty fees. Not that anyone would have enforced it.

Regarding lyrics, I believe REM successfully fought to keep their lyrics from being posted online. Successfully, in that it was within their right to stop it, though I don't think they've been so successful in enforcing it.

I do think it all comes down to how worthwhile it is to pursue violations, whether it's tabs, songs or lyrics. REM could have gone broke trying to chase down every violator - the cost of suing Joe Schmoe for posting the lyrics to Fall On Me would probably far outweigh the damages poor ol' Joe could have paid. Same with tab. Lost sales of sheet music due to tab posting probably doesn't justify the time and expense of fighting it.

Bottom line, it's probably a violation of copyright law, but it's unlikely to draw much attention.

By the way, in addition to OLGA, there was an old guitar site (Dansm's Acoustic Guitar pages) by a guy named Dan Smith. It was perhaps the best site I had found besides this one to learn guitar. He posted a cease-and-desist letter from Warner Brothers warning him to take his tabs off the site. So they did try to stem the tide for a while.

Yeah, I remember Dansm's page. Had the first open tuning and slide info I found. Great stuff!