Should guitar tab sites be penalized for displaying free sheet music, lyrics and tablature?

No

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by Acton Bailey

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I am against the MPA's position of legal action against free tablature and lyric sites.

In December of 2005 the MPA (Music Publisher's Assoctiation) threatened legal action against guitar tab and lyric sites for copyright infringement. The MPA president has stated that he wants "jail time in addition to fines and the removal of offending websites". In 2006 the MPA issued a statement which explained their position:

"MPA members invest a significant amount into arranging, engraving, editing, marketing and distributing sheet music products, and illegal tablature cuts into their sales.

Sharing the tabs is bad enough, but even worse is when sites make money off the illegal tabs.

Guitar tabs do not circumvent copyright laws just because they're claimed to be personal interpretations.

Viewing illegal tabs is equivalent to stealing sheet music from a store.

The MPA isn't targeting authorized websites, and will work with sites that want to build a legitimate business."

-http://www.jusped.n o/wiki/Music_Publish er's_Association

I strongly disagree with the MPA's position on this matter. Yes, making money off 'illegal' tabs is wrong and I can understand legal action against that community, but the non-profit tablature and lyric communities should not be punished.

LYRIC COMMUNITIES:
Pressing legal action against the lyric community is absurd. They are merely quoting someone's words. Video games like Call of Duty quote statesmen, the newspaper quotes many different people, so why can't a website quote a singer? I don't see politicians presing suits against newstations for using one of their quotes. How is this different?

Yes, the song is copyrighted, but the lyrics are not being sold to web-goers, just shown for enjoyment, NOT for profit.

TABLATURE COMMUNITIES:
As a friend of mine once said to me, "The music industry is 90% business, 10% music." We talk of the famous ragtime performers, and how they used music to overcome segregation, or how music has been a way for others to connect or express themselves. Now it seems that sharing the love and entertainment of music is just asking for a lawsuit. These tablature sites are displaying tabs for the public so they can enjoy playing the song. Not to cut into the MPA's sales. There was once a time when you didn't sell music to people, and they still survived. So why can't we be the same? Music should be availbale to anyone so they can enjoy it and develop as a musician. It's more fun to be able to observe the music than to go out, pay $5 for a piece of music, and then find out you can't play it. That is like stealing. $5 for a three minute song is a rip-off.

Also, some tabbing sites are so bad that only 80% of the song is right, or it's written in the wrong key. If people want an accurate song, they WILL go out and buy it.

I hope you will come to agree with me on how music should be shared, not hoarded and used for profit.

Please share this with your friends, and feel free to quote me, I won't press a lawsuit :)

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