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Yes, I'm shamelessly ripping off John Gruber, but I think he'd agree with me on this one.
As some of you may know, I'm trying to be a guitar player. I can bang out a couple songs, but I like to learn more. So, like anyone, I use tab sights. They're just places where people upload tabs, which are invaluable if you don't have a good ear for chords and the like, which I don't.
Now, the thing with Tabs is, they're done by players. People listen to the song, figure out the fingering, and write the tabs.
But we can't have that. Evidently, this is just six kinds of TEH EVIL. Hell the head of the MPA, the Music Publisher's Association, Lauren Keiser wants jail time for Tab Site owners.
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".
And for what?
This:
Fall Behind Me Tab by Donnas, www.Ultimate-Guitar.Com · Fall Behind Me Tab @ 911Tabs.Com
The Donnas - Fall Behind Me
Main riff:
E||----------------------------------|-----------------------------|
B||-----------------------------------|---------------13----------|
G||-------------------12--10~-----|---------------12b---10~-|
D||--0--10--12--0------------0---|----10--12--0-------------|
A||----------------------------------|-----------------------------|
E||----------------------------------|-----------------------------|
---------------------------------|-----------------------------|
---------------------------------|-----------------------------|
--------------------12--10~---|---------------12b-12--10~---|
--0--10--12--0------------0--|----10--12--0----------------|
---------------------------------|-----------------------------|
---------------------------------|-----------------------------|
There you go. The tabs to the opening lick of "Fall Behind Me" by The Donnas.
Why? Because according to Lauren, that just took money out of the hands of someone who does that for a living. Except...not really. You see, I buy "proper" music books a lot. Why? Because a lot of tabs are incomplete, and poorly annotated. Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Allman Brothers. Yeah. Of course, it's not like the books you BUY are completely accurate. My Zeppelin book is quite often full of shit on "Misty Mountain Hop" or it says "Guitar 2 is composed of many different parts". Thanks a pantload Chet, because all you're showing me is a SINGLE LINE. If you're so worried about getting paid, how about being a lot better than the stuff on the Intarweb?
But the Donnas? Can't find a proper book of their work. I guess they don't count enough for all those "hard working people" that Lauren's so worried about. Which makes me wonder...how exactly is a tab site taking money from someone when they aren't trying to make that money? That's like EA saying that a video game they were never going to develop is taking money away from them, because they might have wanted to make it, and now someone else made it and is giving it away. Doctor, my head?
But hey, being complete jackasses is working so well for RIAA and the MPAA, right?
Yeah.
So now, trying to find tabs on the internet? Good luck. Oh, note that as far as Lauren's concerned, writing the tabs by ear is just as illegal as if you copied them from a book.
So I guess music teachers are...deserving of Jail Time. See, this just hurts new musicians, or people interested in songs that aren't moneymakers for tab and music notation publishers. I love "Everything But my Heart" by The Thieves, but I'll eat a sock if there's ever a book published of their music in tab form. That was their only even mildly popular song. Great. Now we'll need Tabster. Bullshit is what it is. Maybe if Lauren insisted that every song published be in a book within a month of its release, he'd have a case. No, not really, because then you don't get the chance to see a variation that this guy did once, and he tabbed it for you. Yeah, Lauren's a cock.
Therefore, because of his insistence that even tabs that ONLY exist on the internet, because they're from a band that the MPA doesn't publish music for are somehow hurting MPA members, (love that logic..."we're never going to put out a book by artist, but if you pull off the tabs on your own, we'll put you in jail, because you're taking money we'll never make."), and for wanting JAIL TIME for the site owners, Lauren Keiser is the Bynkii.com ASSHOLE OF THE MONTH.
Technorati Tags: Guitar, Guitar Tabs, Hypocrisy, Lauren Keiser - Asshole, Musical N00b, Musicians
Posted by John C. Welch at 19:35 | Permalink
