Spring Break
Music companies pull the strings on tab-sharing sites
Matthew Mabe
Issue date: 11/10/06 Section: Features
Aspiring guitarists are finding it harder to learn their favorite songs these days as a new threat of lawsuits from the music industry has started the decline in online guitar tablature sites.
One of the largest guitar tablature sites on the net, Olga.net - Online Guitar Archive - has been the main target in recent copyright infringement lawsuit threats from the National Music Publishers Association and the Music Publishers Association of the United States.
What exactly is a guitar tab? It is a form of musical notation that shows guitarists where to place their fingers on the fret board to form certain notes and chords, much like sheet music does for pianists.
Guitar tabs have six horizontal lines that represent each string on a guitar. On the corresponding lines, there are numbers that represent the fret that the finger is to be placed on that particular string.
Cathal Woods, who is the brains behind Olga.net, took down the site's entire collection of tabs, which numbered more than 34,000, in response to the "take down" letters sent to him from the NMPA and the MPA.
Woods told the British Broadcasting Company that he feels the lawsuit threats against him are not justified.
"Obviously the National Music Publishers' Association and the Music Publishers' Association think the law is on their side and that these are copyright infringements," Woods said.
Woods said that he will not sit aside quietly. He plans to band together with other tab sites and fight back.
Last year, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., NMPA president David Israelite, said unauthorized use of tablature "deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living and is no different than stealing."
"They're forcing everyone off the Net," Woods said. "But, as far as I know, they don't have (an iTunes-style equivalent) that would fill the need for guitar tab online."
Woods said he also feels that the music industry is ignoring the existence of the Internet and should, instead, embrace it.
One of the largest guitar tablature sites on the net, Olga.net - Online Guitar Archive - has been the main target in recent copyright infringement lawsuit threats from the National Music Publishers Association and the Music Publishers Association of the United States.
What exactly is a guitar tab? It is a form of musical notation that shows guitarists where to place their fingers on the fret board to form certain notes and chords, much like sheet music does for pianists.
Guitar tabs have six horizontal lines that represent each string on a guitar. On the corresponding lines, there are numbers that represent the fret that the finger is to be placed on that particular string.
Cathal Woods, who is the brains behind Olga.net, took down the site's entire collection of tabs, which numbered more than 34,000, in response to the "take down" letters sent to him from the NMPA and the MPA.
Woods told the British Broadcasting Company that he feels the lawsuit threats against him are not justified.
"Obviously the National Music Publishers' Association and the Music Publishers' Association think the law is on their side and that these are copyright infringements," Woods said.
Woods said that he will not sit aside quietly. He plans to band together with other tab sites and fight back.
Last year, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., NMPA president David Israelite, said unauthorized use of tablature "deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living and is no different than stealing."
"They're forcing everyone off the Net," Woods said. "But, as far as I know, they don't have (an iTunes-style equivalent) that would fill the need for guitar tab online."
Woods said he also feels that the music industry is ignoring the existence of the Internet and should, instead, embrace it.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Dave
posted 3/11/09 @ 8:20 AM CST
The time to fight back is now.I play guitar and the best way I have found to learn guitar is by playing guitar tabs that others have worked on.How can any laws be broken if I tab a song myself?This is how we learn when we first start playing guitar,this is how our guitar teachers have done it in the past. (Continued…)
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