Jack-Flash-Jr
Anyone know what the legal status of tabs is nowadays? I use TuxGuitar (brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant and free, plus does notation as well for those that like to read or like me use time signatures etc.) to bone up on pieces when I'm too lazy to work them out and write tabs myself. I have an archive of gp3's that I would love to share but I don't want to transgress board or any other laws. A lot of them are not under copyright (classical etc.) but most are pop/rock etc. artists. I know that a few years ago an ad revenue sharing agreement was reached with record and/or publishing companies and tab sites but I don't exactly know the ins and outs.
Admins and others? What's the story?
AlanRatcliffe
As I understand it, tabs are fine if you make them and use them yourself (I think it falls under fair use), but illegal if you pass them on to others without the publisher getting paid for it or giving permission. In reality there is obviously a lot of stuff being passed around and, like home taping of music in the '70s and '80s, there is little chance of prosecution as long as no-one is making copious amounts of money off it. Once someone starts making respectable money from it, the publisher will notice and want their slice. Which is what happened with OLGA and other tab sites.
Guitar Pro no longer bundle song tabs with their (commercial) software as they could then be said to be selling tabs. They do however link to sites that carry the tabs (enabling them to use the free availability as a selling point, but having little to no legal responsibility for them). I suspect if they are ever tackled, they will ditch the links too - they are well known enough now to stand on their own.
As far as GFSA goes, it's a tricky one - I think we cannot risk allowing posting of any tabs of commercial music (tabs made by our members of their own, original music, or, like the lessons in Guitarist magazine - ones "in the style of..." are fine though). I think if we do allow that, we stand a real chance of eventually being sued and in all likelihood, shut down. I'd be interested if anyone who has more knowledge in this area would chip in.
Unfortunately we cannot police everything, especially not PMs and the chatroom...
Jack-Flash-Jr
Thanks Alan, I getcha. In the meantime I would recommend people check out Tuxguitar since it is open source and there are ways of getting the gp3's...
doc-phil
I think Guitar Pro tabs should be completely free, and everyone should be able to distribute and share tabs openly. mysongbook.com was shut down cos of legal battles regarding this issue.. I think it is ridiculous.. What is the harm in it?? Do artists think that people are gonna download their gp tabs then listen to midi instead of buying their albums?? ?
I can honestly say that if it were not for guitar pro and powertab I probably wouldn't be playing guitar now... I get so frustrated with text or notepad tabs. Plus I can't really read sheet music either. I've downloaded about 1000 guitar pro files in the last couple years, and without them I'd be lost.
If the record companies, or the artists (or whoever it is that moans about this kinda thing) could prove that they have suffered damage in any way by the distribution of tabs then maybe the position should be reconsidered; but until then, the principles of delict and intellectual property just cannot afford them a remedy! ? I suppose if record companies wanted to compile virtual songbooks of their artists and sell tabs like that they could start to moan. But really, a tab is a person's own interpretation of how a song is played; I think the record companies should accept that this is something they cannot make money from.
Of course, when people create tabs they must acknowledge the artist and the record company in the info section of the tabs, but other than that, I could really see no reason why tabs should not be freely distributed. I suppose the next thing that is going to happen is that people will be banned from playing other people's songs, you'll have to purchase the song in order to sit in your room and practice it ???
