Song sites face legal crackdown

[Jared Moya]

The Music Publishers' Association (MPA), which represents US sheet music companies, will launch its first campaign against such sites in 2006.


 MPA president Lauren Keiser said he wanted site owners to be jailed. He said unlicensed guitar tabs and song scores were widely available on the internet but were "completely illegal".


 Mr Keiser said he did not just want to shut websites and impose fines, saying if authorities can "throw in some jail time I think we'll be a little more effective".

Read the complete article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4508158.stm/)

[shawners]

Bullshit.. Its like this..ALL The artist got where they are today by playing SHEET MUSIC Of their favorite band.. They learn to play the songs at clubs before writting their own.. EVeryone has learned to play the generation of music before them.. and it will continue to be done that way.

[.:sp00ky:.]

Good someone take down that boodly itunes and that scam site napster.

[axlman]

Take down Lyrics as well? MY God!!!! This is getting way out of hand! It's Bullshit!

It's a good thing that I don't buy music anymore! Hell, most music sucks now days anyway!

[black_magiic]

Good someone take down that boodly itunes and that scam site napster.
I think you may have misread the article. It's talking about guitartab sites. I believe like MXTabs and the like. I could be totally wrong though.

[mcovey]

CREED LYRICS

"With Arms Wide Open"

Well I just heard the news today
It seems my life is going to change
I closed my eyes, begin to pray
Then tears of joy stream down my face

With arms wide open
Under the sunlight
Welcome to this place
I'll show you everything
With arms wide open
With arms wide open

Well I don't know if I'm ready
To be the man I have to be
I'll take a breath, I'll take her by my side
We stand in awe, we've created life

With arms wide open
Under the sunlight
Welcome to this place
I'll show you everything
With arms wide open
Now everything has changed
I'll show you love
I'll show you everything
With arms wide open
With arms wide open
I'll show you everything ...oh yeah
With arms wide open..wide open

[Guitar Break]

If I had just one wish
Only one demand
I hope he's not like me
I hope he understands
That he can take this life
And hold it by the hand
And he can greet the world
With arms wide open...

With arms wide open
Under the sunlight
Welcome to this place
I'll show you everything
With arms wide open
Now everything has changed
I'll show you love
I'll show you everything
With arms wide open
With arms wide open
I'll show you everything..oh yeah
With arms wide open....wide open

.................................................. ..................

Uh oh, should Jorge be in jail now? This MPA is probably not a thread because any judge would reject their "throw em in prison" attitude. And tabs aren't illegal anyway, any more than taking pictures of buildings is, and the architect claiming that they are infringing on his architecture rights.

[mountain_rage]

Man anyone and everyone involved with music has a stick shoved so far up their ass I think its hindering their capacity for clear thinking. Anyway although I could understand how this could affect a legit buisness I cant say I feel bad for them. Sheet music is generally way overpriced.

[Signa]

wow, next they will be going after artists that no one owns and throwing them in jail for playing music, because the RIAA owns all things musical.

[skankito]

Remember they were going to do this a few years ago? I guess they just got carried away with all their lawsuits.

[Zedraloth]

The success of the RIAA and MPAA in their endeavor to continue the domination of the music industry through legal action has triggered a greed within others who are weak against their own voracious desire to persue an opulent lifestyle. Who doesn't want life-long financial security, and maybe even the opportunity for avaricious spending? Greed is an innate human emotion that is present in many or most, if not, all of us. Apperantly the people at the head of the MPA realize the success of other media industry "associations" in the employment of our own governments' laws to line their own pockets with the money of the middle-class, and they want a piece of the pie too.
Copying and sharing music has been around for decades or maybe even centuries; they just used different technology to do it. Copying and sharing sheet music has definately been around for centuries. With the capability to copy and share on a large scale through the internet, MAYBE the popular bands are getting less money. What about the less popular bands? I've seen so many more "nobody" bands become somewhat popular and gain cult followings since Napster than I had ever seen before.
Mass P2P file sharing promotes a financial balance in the music industry. Mass sheet music and tablature sharing promotes artistic growth and intellectual stimulation of budding musicians. To limit the ability to copy and share music files and sheet music could potentially impede the growth and thriving of the music industry its self.
So heres a big SCREW YOU to all of the greedy media associations of the world.

[teto]

Any law passed that regulates or restricts the right to share seeds with one another shall not be recognized, must be disobeyed.

[AJ14]

ok first off, most tabs are done by us (regular people) we take the song, listen to a section and figure out what notes they are playing and then write them down. the sheet music company buys them from the artists, makes a shit load of copys and sells them. now if we do our work and tab it out our selfs and make a mistake or two, then its techinically no an exact copy which law states that copy write infringement is making a direct copy and distributing it, there was no "direct copying of the tabs + it is not exactly the same as in the books they sell. you can see that as a technicality but their arguments are also based on techinicalities too. also the artists arnt making any money from tabs and sheet music because they've sold the sheet music rights for copying them, mettalica couldnt sell their own tabs if they wanted to because they sold the distribution rights. they have made their money from it, this is the industrie of sheet music complaining that there is an alternate (free) source to get sheet music. weather or not its accurate it still affects their sales so they want to put an end to it, jail time would make it that much more intimidating to try to put up your own site. its political bullshit from grown men who became CEO's and then became babies again. this is bullshit

[winedropper]

Copyrights should be treated like patents. A patent owner has 17 years to profit from his or her invention. Then it becomes public domain. Were it not so, we might be paying Edison's estate for the use of the light bulb, and Michelin would have a monopoly on the production of radial tires.
The composers of songs and copyright holders of works of music should be granted no more than 17 years to make their piles. It is ridiculous to be paying the estate of Irving Berlin fees for permission to arrange one of his songs originally written in the 1920's.