Again? The documents are 2 months old!

Haven't used that site in years....

What's their problem, btw??

Never used that site but I do miss Powertab.

FriarReb98: What's their problem, btw??

They make some money off the sale of sheet music. Which not many people buy. So, by downloading tabs you are supporting terrorists.

DMCA - legally suppressing freedom of speech and expression since 1998!

Thanks guys, I didn't want art, music, or the open exchange of ideas among creative people getting in the way of pop music or corporate controlled entertainment!

Weaver95: hanks guys, I didn't want art, music, or the open exchange of ideas among creative people

That means people would be thinking.
They don't like it when we do that.

So you guys are saying you don't want the people who wrote these songs that you like well enough to want to know how to play to get any money from their efforts? Because I don't see how you can support stealing their work any other way. I hate the DMCA also but not for stuff like this, because this is stealing plain and simple.

SpongBub: this is stealing plain and simple.

Learning how to play a song you love is stealing? I can't learn how to play "Hey Jude" to my niece before she falls asleep at night? Does this also apply to lyric archives too, in case I want to sing to her? (This is hypothetical of course, since I'm completely tone-deaf.)

So you guys are saying you don't want the people who wrote these songs that you like well enough to want to know how to play to get any money from their efforts?

Um, they're not gonna get any money anyway - it all goes to the guys with the copyrights. And the guys with copyrights to the songs AREN'T the people who wrote the songs.

Because I don't see how you can support stealing their work any other way.

If a thief steals from a thief, I figure the scales are balanced.

And it's not stealing, the DMCA was writen by corporations FOR corporations. You and I were and are supposed to get boned by this legislation.

Um, they're not gonna get any money anyway - it all goes to the guys with the copyrights. And the guys with copyrights to the songs AREN'T the people who wrote the songs.

You are justifying. That is true in some cases but not all. And if the songwriter doesn't own publishing rights, then they sold them to someone else (their decision). That still doesn't give anyone the right to post their work on a website without paying royalties.

Look, anyone has the right to pick out the chords to any song - that's how I learned to play most songs I know. But if you are going to get the chords off a website or out of a book, then royalties need to be paid. Trust me, if it was you who owned the copyrights, you'd be pissed.

Meh...nothing to fret about.

That still doesn't give anyone the right to post their work on a website without paying royalties.

Sure it does. Or, to put this bluntly, it's out on the 'net and you can't call it back. Suing someone after the fact isn't only pointless, it's just vindictive. And if you build a business on suing your customers don't expect to stay in business for very long.

Trust me, if it was you who owned the copyrights, you'd be pissed.

Now look who's trying to justify....look, here's the situation - this information is out there on the net. You can't get it back, and RIGHT NOW someone is playing songs without anyone getting royalties. You can drag as many people into court of that for as long as your bank accounts holds out...but no matter HOW many people you sue, you cannot stop someone from playing those songs and not paying you.

Now, you can either accept that fact of life and rethink the DMCA, or you can ignore it and keep squashing individual rights.

Personally, I tend to come down on the side of the individual but i'm funny like that. I didn't like how the corporations wrote the DMCA and had a couple of pet congressthings ramrod it thru in the middle of the night with no discussion. I'd have preferred an actual public debate on the measure. Again tho, I have delusions of representative democracy being a good thing, so bear with me.

The legal response to this Cease and Desist order can be quite simple. In fact, only 2 words: FAIR USE
.

Hopefully the guys/gals who run this site can afford some decent legal counsel who can fire off a suitable response.

This is nuts.. The site dates back to 1992 or so.

that's it.

i'm starting burning CDs with FLACs i download and give them to as many friends i can. if they prefer MP3s, it's ok.

also i will start giving copies of the CDs i have bought.

NMPA, MPA, YOU SUCK COX

No Stairway!?

Denied.

ultimate-guitar archive still works fine. powertabs FTW

You know, generally the chords/tabs aren't that acurate anyway on OLGA (uinlike, say, Powertab *sniffle, RIP my friend*). I'm not sure how you can claim copyrights on music that isn't correct in the first place. If you want a good tab, you go buy the Hal Leonard, or Cherry Lane book, or whatever (those lack at times as well).

Also, what about all the independant artists on OLGA? There are TONS. Hell, I have tabs on that site! Where's my mothafarkin' check! :P

Most of the time it was just people's perception of the songs anyways. That stuff isn't usually 100% accurate but it gives you a push in the right direction. If someone just wants to learn how to play a song then fine. I'd really doubt anyone could make any profit off of learning one or two songs for themselves to practice or jam with.


Learning to play a couple of songs from different artists won't stop a person from consuming their fair share of music.

I would think of it as a compliment if someone wanted to learn how to play a song I wrote, but that's just me. I work for a living so I don't know how hard it is to be a professional musician. I know they have it rough, though. I guess I'm lucky to have to get up as the ass-crack of dawn everyday and go to the same place and do the same thing everyday. Poor musicians.....

Jesus, OLGA was a godsend when I picked up guitar so many years ago. I don't doubt some of the material has been copied from tab books but I know for a fact much of the material was 'reverse engineered' fair and square. This one guy, Jimmy Pena, tabbed many Rush songs incredibly well. He even got the timing right and as we all know timing is usually not thought of when it comes to tablature.

This isn't about going after the guy's who put up Brittny's new single online. This is about going after some guys who just want to share how songs are played. Heck, if anything, encouraging people to play copyrighted songs spurs more interest in album and concert sales.

The other major source, MXTabs, is down, too. Well, it's up, but every tab no longer works. It's retarded. I just found that out today when I went to look for a tab.

They'll be suing people for singing in the shower next.

plategeek: No Stairway!?

Denied.


There's a sign in a music store 'round these parts that says "Anyone caught playing Stairway to Heaven will be beaten over the head with a Gibson solid-body electric." And it's a damn good rule.

This is really getting out of hand. Do we have to send a check to someone every time we quote a book or a movie now?

Got to www.ultimate-guitar.com It's based out of Russia so these a-holes can't get them shut down.

If you learn to play music, the terrorists win!

Have you ever bought sheet music? Unless you are talking about sheet music for piano on a classical (or classical type) piece of music, I have met 12 year olds that can get closer to the actual notes than what I was sold for $5. Sell me the score (or tab) you used to record it, and I will pay. Otherwise, pound sand.

Hey MPAA, I haven't bought a CD since 2002, and that was The Wall. I bought that because I downloaded it, listened to it, and liked it so much that I wanted Pink Floyd to have some of my money. Stick that in your focus group.

SpongBub: >So you guys are saying you don't want the people who wrote these songs that you like well enough to want to know how to play to get any money from their efforts? Because I don't see how you can support stealing their work any other way.

I'd like to ask you to explain to me how this is stealing. Say I like a certain song, and I figure out a way to play it. I write this down and then share it with some other people. When should I pay the songwriter? Where did I steal something? I figured out how to play the song on my own, and then wrote it down. I didn't make "illegal" copies of the song itself or sheet music for the song. I didn't record my own version and make money off of it.

Look, anyone has the right to pick out the chords to any song - that's how I learned to play most songs I know. But if you are going to get the chords off a website or out of a book, then royalties need to be paid. Trust me, if it was you who owned the copyrights, you'd be pissed.


And I wouldn't be pissed if I was a popular musician and found that people were trying to play my songs. I'd think it would be cool. People teaching others how to play my music would not hurt me. But I guess I 'm different, I'd view the relationship I have with my listeners, especially the musically inclined, as a little bit nicer than the producer/customer thing.

Makes about as much sense as an injunction to stop you from singing copyrighted songs in the shower, and if that were inforceable they would have lawyers in your shower by tomorrow morning, and I would headed to law school.

So, if I write:

G-C-G

...am I responsible for copyright infringement on the great number of Pink Floyd songs that contain that progression?

Mugato

This is really getting out of hand. Do we have to send a check to someone every time we quote a book or a movie now?

No, only if you repulish the book online.

Which is what we're talking about.

Tablature is republished music that is copyrighted.

If you're a pirate just be a pirate, don't biatch about the laws that make you a pirate.

Learning how to play a song you love is stealing? I can't learn how to play "Hey Jude" to my niece before she falls asleep at night?

And the daily Fark award for playing dumb and completely misrepresenting the issue at hand goes to ....

HumbleGod

Yay, u r teh stoopid weiner.

Americans going to Russian websites for information denied them by their government.

My, how the mighty have fallen!

popain: Tablature is republished music that is copyrighted.

If you're a pirate just be a pirate, don't biatch about the laws that make you a pirate.

Much of the tablature re original works. And a three chord song that's found out by someone simply listening to it could be transcribed exactly how a book out there has it written down.

If someone reads me a book, and I write down what I hear, I can publish that, right? Because it's not an exact copy.

American copyright was originally started to protect authors from the evil publishers.

SpongBub

You're absolutely right. And while we're at it, let's shut down those got-damned public libraries. I mean, you can just walk in, check out a book, and learn whatever you want without paying a dime? That's outrageous! There's money to be made!

ok yeah, shut down olga again. like there isnt 1000 other guitar tab sites that have the same exact tabs as were on olga.

My guitar teacher is working me through The Ballad of Curtis Lowe. That farking thief. I think I'll report him.

OLGA doesn't contain the actual sheet music per se, but it does has chord and TAB transcriptions contributed by individuals. Majority of it is fairly accurate. In some instances, it's...meh.

If you're an experienced player, in a good deal of instances you can just pick up the song by either 1) Listening to the song itself or 2) catching a video and just watching the left hand formations in chord changes. All bets are off if your dealing with alternate tunings, but if you snoop hard enough other ways (fan club websites as an example) you can get those too over time.

I come down on both sides of this issue - It's intellectual property, so to speak, but so much of the impact of music today is image and lyrics. It seems the artists and recording companies would do better to go after the CD pirating and illegal downloads instead of this stuff, but as they say, if you can't beat your wife, you go kick to dog.

So if I figure out how to play a song and show someone how to play it that is OK but if I write it down so more than 1 person can learn it that's stealing. By that logic college students can't share their notes with other students, or take notes at all because it would be the words of the professor and you would be stealing his "intellectual property".

Who does the DMCA represent anyway? artists? Copywriters? Record companies? their own interests?

What about songs in the public domain?

Don't steal; Outsource.

www.guitaretab.com
www.allofmp3.com

Legal for labor, legal for commerce.

I bet Karl Rover and those evil Nazi Republicans are behind this.

They shut it down because they made billions off the sale of sheet music and it was cutting into their profits.

/not.

The persons who are contending that learning thier songs constitutes a copywrite infringement are the same people who, over the years learned their skills by copying the music of musicians before them...many times, without buying the sheet music, or, even, the albums. Someone in their group figured it out aand taught it to the friends.

Now, they want protection against the same thing happening to them. I believe that OLGA should have protection against the corporate slugs the MPA, and others represent. They should not be allowed to stand on the backs of past musicians without offering a bootstrap to future musicians

I call shenanigans ... hard. This is like making someone take down a paint-by-numbers instructional template for a piece of artwork.

Tablature is NOT sheet music, nor the song. It's a document created by an average Joe that shows you where you can put your fingers to emulate a song according to where Joe thinks the original recording artistprobably put his/her fingers.

/lame

The globalization of the world's information is a good thing for those of us in countries that institute incredibly stupid laws and regulations to try and protect the vast numbers of middle management people out there who actually own and control access to most things.

If it's illegal to sell it here, it'll be legal in Russia. If not Russia, perhaps Turkmenistan. If not there, I'm sure there's some tiny state on the Pacific rim somewhere that's looking for foreign investment to start up an online site and make a name for itself meeting the demand of the public for data at a price close to its actual price-point. All America is doing by instituting restrictive copyright and information laws is driving money out of the country, increasing the trade deficit and allowing third world nations to get rich off of our inability to separate ourselves from the need to employ millions of people in management and regulatory positions instead of actually focusing on the creation of things.

It's funny when corporations can't figure out how markets work.

You can pay 19.95 for a complete and accurate tab of your favorite album, or you can get Joe Blows pretty close interpretation, which may or may not even be complete, on the net for free. Why is this a problem?

I'm sure the DMCA, or similar, has been tried in other countries. I'm willing to bet the politicians realized this would cause an explosion of lawsuits and decided that, for the good of the people, this could not be allowed.

WHY IS THE PROFIT OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY MORE IMPORANT THAN THE FREEDOM OF OUR PEOPLE!?!

/We can still breath for free, for now.
//Whew
///Okay, I'm done.