Music Industry To Go After Online Lyrics, Tab

[HARD ROCK UNIVERSE]

The music industry is planning to extend its war on unlicensed music by taking action against internet sites that provide guitar tabs and lyrics without copyright.

The Music Publishers’ Association (MPA) which represents sheet music companies in America says it will launch a crackdown in 2006 with MPA President Lauren Kaiser saying she wanted site owners jailed.

Keiser told the BBC that the majority of song scores on the internet were “completely illegal” and added that the MPA wanted to go further that shutting sites down and imposing fines, adding authorities can “throw in some jail time, I think we'll be a little more effective"

The MPA plan to target big sites that appear to be legitimate to users, Kaiser 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."

David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers’ Association added on the subject: "Unauthorised use of lyrics and tablature deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living, and is no different than stealing. Music publishers and songwriters will consider all tools under the law to stop this illegal behaviour."

[MrAce]

nightwatcher 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.

In other words, if you learn to sing and play our songs without paying us first, we will get you.

[hifi]

Ok, I get it that it’s not too cool to put actual copies of music from guitar books, sheet music, etc. online. I don’t play guitar myself (or anything other than the old hi fi set these days) but I really don’t see what’s wrong with posting a guitar tab for a person’s personal use so they can find out/figure out how to play a favorite song if one isn’t one of these people who can play by ear or can’t/doesn’t read music.

And lyrics ... Do you know how many times I’ve ultimately been able to BUY (i.e. $$$$$) an album only knowing a snippet of a vaguely remembered song I liked because I was able to search for/find the complete lyrics to a song online which helped me figure out which song I was thinking of in the first place and which album the song was on???

Again, I think it’s a case of those who abusing the system making it worse or more difficult for the rest of us music lovers who are NOT attempting to profit by having access to this information.

[Jesse]

I can kinda see both sides to the equation.

I have a HUGE collection of songbooks so that I'm always prepared should someone in one of my bands want to learn a certain song. I only go to the internet sites if I don't have said song in my collection because......well, on many of the sites, the tablature and/or lyrics are wrong! That's me. Now the other guitarist in my one band, I don't think owns a single piece of sheet music. Instead, he relies on what he can find FOR FREE over the internet. That's all well and good, but if you get too many people like him, I can see where that would put a hurting on the sheet music/tablature industry.

[Trexx]

Just because IT'S EASY TO COPY STUFF, doesn't mean that it's OK to do it. The intellectual property rights laws are very old and exist for a reason: to protect the endeavors of artists and writers from theft of their work. That's RIGHT, THEFT. IT'S STEALING. (ie: taking something that doesn't belong to you) When it's a free-for-all, it destroys the incentive to make art and writing public and undermines the ability of artists to have a paycheck.