Comments on: Guitar tablature? Keep looking

By: Ima Fish

Ima Fish — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:56:38 +0000

There is no doubt that a transcription of a song without permission violates copyright. The fact that it’s in “tablature” versus music notation is irrelevant.

I also feel that calling the tab your own interpretation is disingenuous as the whole point of these tab sites is to get accurate transcriptions of the material so you can replay that songs accurately. But if you really are doing an interpretation of the song, it would still be a derivative work.

I agree with Mmm. There is a market for this and the song writers and publishers deserve to have their rights protected. But I also agree with JScott that the current market is not filling that market. (I’m a musician too so I know what JScott is complaining about!)

The music industry should come to its senses and license the use of its music to tab sites. That way the industry gets paid and users get more accurate transcriptions of their favorite songs.

By: Tuvi

Tuvi — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 03:39:15 +0000

Is it a copyright infringement? The way I see it is that a tablature posted by an individual and marked as “their interpretation of the song” should not be a legal issue. How far does the law percieve the copyright laws? What if the song was posted and misspelled or named inappropriately in order to avoid the impression of the legitimate sheet music? Or am I just rambling?

By: JScott

JScott — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:10:10 +0000

I don’t agree that it is vaiable, the sheet music industry only puts out mediocre song lists at best. When I want a song, they don’t have it or I have to buy a whole compilation that I don’t want.

And most don’t have every good tabs for bass players. So when they come up with a better way to provide what I want, I’ll buy their stuff, but until then they won’t get a nickel of my money.

By: mmm

mmm — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:49:25 +0000

I guess I really don’t have a problem with the music industry in this case. Sheet music is a valid, viable market and the tablature is certainly a derivative work of the original music. Giving away for free (and accepting advertising) what the music industry could charge for seems legitimate.

By: Joe Bingham

Joe Bingham — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:07:21 +0000

They destroyed OLGA (online guitar archive) about a decade ago. People still post tabs, but with no lyrics. I guess now they’re trying to take down the lyricless tabs, as well?