Full Story

Okay, so I'm checking my favorite tab site..only to find that they aren't offering tabs anymore, for anything.

Apparently, the MPA is starting a campaign about all that stuff in 2006...illegal mp3's, lyrics, tabs, sheet music, you name it. That prick of a president in the MPA, Lauren Keiser, even wants to throw some jail time in the direction of people who offer such things on websites.

WHAT THE HELL?!

I never imagined it would go this far. I can understand going after people pirating the songs...but the lyrics and the scores?! Hell, half of the time, tabs and sheet music are interpretations of the song. It's not like tabbers go and copy everything out of a tab book for it. Goddamn <__<

Oh, and this new little campaign basically means that every time we post something in the Favorite Lyrics thread, we're breaking the law.


Now for the debate part: Do you think offering lyrics, tabs, sheet music and so on up for download or viewing on websites should be illegal, or legal?

PLEASE TELL ME I'M NOT ALONE IN THINKING THIS IS COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLSHIT.

Erm. xD I accidently put illegal.
It should be legal.

That's like saying when I sing music, I should be put in jail for singing it. o_O
xD! Which actually makes perfect sense!
But not in the I'm stealing their lyrics way.

As long as you give credit to the person who wrote it, it's like doing a cover of it, right? I mean, people do tributes and covers and remakes all the time. Plus the people who write tabs actually sit with the song and figure out how to play it on guitar/bass (or at least a similar version of it), and same with the vocals I think. It's one thing to take the origional songs - those are people's hard work you're ripping off - but to do your own is different.

Now thats just stupid....... soon there going to make it illegal to just say the name of the damn song.... i just dont see how tabs and lyrics would be illegal.... soon we wont be able to find MIDIs.... I just cant have that!!!

SAVE THE MIDIS!!!!!!!!

That is bull, your right. Pirating songs, as you said, is wrong, and that is why napster is out of business. If they make all that other stuff illegal, then MILLIONS of sites are going to be banned and sued. Someone is going to get rich off of this. Since its not me, this is bull.

This sort of issue is not new...and the fact of the matter is, this sort of idea, is merely a threat...

Think about it...Everytime a body like the MPA ban some form of music, whether it be lyrics, pirated music or whatever, they are merely threatening the population, BECAUSE THEY CANNOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT...Ive had this argument a number of times...As soon as Napster went down, Kazaa and the like became popular...as soon as they put a license on MP3's, people found ways of getting round that...And now, as soon as they make it illegal to put up guitar tabs etc on sites, people are just going to keep getting away with it, because the internet has become an impossible thing to police...

This sort of thing is exactly like video tapes...by the same logic, its actually illegal to video tape a show off the tv...which is bullshit because everyone's been doing it for yonks...in fact, copying anything is basically illegal...copying a jpg for instance...but the majority of people dont care, because nobody is going to bust you over taking a jpg...and the same goes for music...although they say you will recieve X amount in fines...the simple fact is you have to be the most unlucky bastard on the planet to get caught...

So really, I dont think this will pose a problem...

They only want to do this so they can do something like I-Tabs and I-Lyrics...... But I-Dont want to pay for things....Like G said..... they just want to line there wallets with our blood.... or money, whatever.....

I'm confused as to how this is even an issue. Now, I listen to a LOT of parodies. I know, from my parody-searching on the web, that the Supreme Court has declared it perfectly ok for people to sell parodies of music, PROVIDED that they play the music themselves (i.e. they don't use a CD and just take the words out), and they change the lyrics. That being said, it sounds like it's been declared that you can't copyright the music itself, just the entire song. (Like, you can't copyright an animation method, but you can copyright an animated movie.)

That being said, if someone's scanning in sheet music, and posting it online, yeah, that should be illegal. But if someone decides to post the music/chords/whatever themselves, and they didn't copy it from a copyrighted source, how can that be illegal?

And as for lyrics, what are they but an extended quote? As long as you give credit to the person who wrote/performed them, you have commited no crime.

Wasn't there something in the news where about where someone got sued for copying music for a seperate song? If that is illegal, then why arn't parodies? And anyhoo, why can't the internet be policed? I understand that some of the small, back corner of the web sites can't be found, but what about the bigger sites, like oh... newgrounds?

This is bs. >.< Tabs generally are interpretation, and how can they ban putting lyrics online? Heck, I want the lyrics so I can know what the fruit these people are singing, even if I own the cds. o.O The whole thing pisses me off.

I agree with the whole, it's idiotic. xD

I understand mp3s and all you know, but, like DG said. I just want to know what they're saying. xD

Rubbish. The more they supress us, the more we're going to rebel!

Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it.
- John Lennon

Who da man, yo?:P Music should be free!

Besides, we're not saying we own the words or intellectual property (that's the stealing part) if we have the lyrics. Lyrics/tabs/scores serve as a guide. I mean isn't that flattery to the composers? We love your music, we play it so let us be!