Killjoy , money grabbing b`stards

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By Jonathan Duffy BBC News Magazine Guitar sales are at an all time high, according to figures last weekWith the fight against illegal downloading of songs starting to pay off, the music business has set its sights on a new enemy on the internet - websites which transcribe pop songs into musical notation. The guitar may be

enjoying a comeback among schoolboys and dad rockers alike, but beginners hoping to strum along with their favourite bands are finding dissonance online. Having seen off some of the biggest networks that enabled free downloading of songs over the net, the music business is now calling the tune for websites aimed at guitarists. Music publishers in the US say the guitar "tab" sites illegally infringe songwriters' copyright, and have issued "take down" orders to some of the biggest. Tab, or guitar tablature, is a simple form of musical notation for the guitar - far easier to learn than traditional musical notation. Notes are depicted on a staff that represents six strings across a fret board. Some of the sites targeted have all but closed down, provoking an angry reaction on guitar blogs. Illegal adaptations Since the early days of the net, guitarists have shared tabs for their favourite songs, online. WHAT IS GUITAR TAB? Form of musical notation that tells players where to place fingers on fret board Six horizontal lines represent six strings of the guitar Numbers show where each string is fretted Guitar

sales double in 7 years While tab is officially published in books, to be bought, from which a royalty goes to the songwriter, the selection is limited - most songs are never formally transcribed. But online, just about any artist, from Boyzone to Big Bill Broonzy, has had their work written into tab - free to view, no registration required. Most sites, however, claim their tabs are not ripped off from official sources - rather they represent the "interpretation" of a song. Skilled musicians can transcribe a guitar riff, chord sequence or solo after just a few listens. But that doesn't wash with the music industry, which says even adaptations of songs are covered by copyright law. Cathal Woods, who runs Olga.net - Online Guitar Archive - has removed all 34,000 tablatures in the site's archive after getting a "take down" letter from lawyers representing two US groups: the

National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and the Music Publishers Association of the United States (MPA). "Obviously the law is on their side and obviously these are copyright infringements," he says, frankly. But he plans to fight the order along with other sites. "They're forcing everyone off the net but as far as I know they don't have anything [an iTunes-style equivalent] that would fill the need for guitar tab online. "My other objection is that for the music publishing companies, it's as if the internet never happened. The internet changes everything and we need to think about what's permissible in the context of the internet." 'Unprofitable' site Olga, which claimed 1.9 million users a month before going offline, is the mother of all guitar tab sites, dating back to 1992. So why has the crackdown come now? Olga, which started as a Usenet group, has been shut"Some people say it's because the business is looking for a new target after MP3 sites. But almost all tab sites use very basic, text-only tabs. They are low-level, low information sites whereas with MP3 sharing sites you were getting something that is qualitatively identical to the original song." Mr Woods says that Olga was not a profit-making site. Its advertising covered its cost, but it kept a community feel. "[The lawyers] say we're making money out of these sites but I've never been paid for it. It's a hobby. I've got a full-time job," he says. Speaking last year, the president of the NMPA, David Israelite, said unauthorised use of lyrics and tablature "deprives the songwriter of the

ability to make a living, and is no different than stealing. The US MPA says it has the support of sister organisation around the world, including its UK counterpart. Lawyer and editor of Out-law.com Struan Robertson says under British law, there is little doubt that tab sites are, technically, breaking copyright laws. But he is "disappointed" with how the US music industry is going about it. "In the UK a few years ago, the British music industry didn't go after MP3 sites because at the time there was no legal source of reasonably priced music on the internet. Then iTunes [Apple's legal music download site] came along and only then did the British industry step in and threaten to sue the illegal sites." Peter H

 

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