Legal issues
There has been much controversy over the legal position of tablature available on the Internet, as many Internet tablature websites provide user-created tablature without properly acquiring a print license from, or paying royalties to, the original songwriter and, often, the music publisher that controls these licenses. Although many of the Internet tablature websites that offer user-created tablature do not charge consumers for these transcriptions, revenue generated from advertising on these websites is typically kept by the website owners as profit, or used to cover the website's maintenance costs, and no – or very limited – royalties are received by the original songwriter. Further, music publishers and artists have been wary to license content to certain user-generated tablature websites due to quality issues with the tablature created by amateur users.
Such free Internet tablature sites often attempt to defend themselves by claiming to be educational providers or non-profit organizations, even if not formally registered as such.[7][not in citation given] This leads to considerable difficulty justifying the service as legal under the fair use doctrine of copyright law (see Fair use as a defense). The legality of free Internet tablature served by such websites is disputed, largely because websites have thus far only been threatened with legal action; the issue has yet[when?] to be taken to court.
As of December 12, 2005, distributing free tablatures of copyrighted music using the Internet was considered illegal by the music industry in the United States.[citation needed] By early 2006, an unprecedented legal move was taken by the Music Publishers' Association (MPA), initiating legal action against tablature websites that hosted interpretations of songs and music. The MPA had been pushing for websites offering free tablatures to be shut down. MPA president Lauren Keiser said that their goal is for owners of free tablature services to face fines and even imprisonment.[8] Several websites that offered free tablature have taken their tablature off-line until a solution or compromise is found. One of the proposed solutions is an alternative compensation system, which allows the widespread reproduction of digital copyrighted works while still paying songwriters and copyright owners. In addition, there are now a number of "legal" services offering guitar tablature that have been licensed by music publishers.[9]
One site, MetalTabs.com, contacts the bands themselves for permission to post tablature. Few bands have declined the request.[10]
The tablature debate was featured on NPR's Morning Edition in a segment entitled "Music Industry Goes after Guitar Tablature Websites" on August 7, 2006.[11]
On April 10, 2010, Ultimate Guitar (UG), a Russia-based, free on-line tablature site, entered a licensing agreement with Harry Fox Agency.[12] The agreement included rights for lyrics display, title search and tablature display with download and print capabilities. HFA’s over 44,000 represented publishers have the opportunity to opt in to the licensing arrangement with UG.
Rise of legal guitar tablature sites
In light of the legal questions surrounding user-created on-line guitar tablature, a number of companies have been formed that claim to offer consumers legal on-line tablature, which has been officially-licensed from songwriters and/or music publishers. These companies offering legal content generally fall into three categories:
Websites that offer "professionally-created" content: These websites typically hire professional musicians to transcribe songs into guitar tablature, and generally charge anywhere from $0.99 to $6.99 for the ability to purchase legal pieces of guitar tablature. These websites also claim to have acquired the proper licenses to display this tablature on-line. Several websites in this first category specifically cater to guitarists, including guitarinstructor.com[13] and unitedwetab.com.[14]
Websites that offer "user-created" tablature, but have obtained the proper legal clearances to post these transcriptions on-line. There are several websites that fall into this second category, including Guitar World Tabs,[15] mxtabs.net,[16] and ultimate-guitar.com[17] which generally do not charge consumers for using these user-created tablature pieces, and share any advertising revenue with music publishers and/or songwriters.
Websites that index other tablature resources, and offer unique formatting options, such as cleantab[18] and chordie.[19]
Mxtabs.net
Mxtabs.net had been closed down due to complaints from copyright holders. However, as of February 23, 2006, the owners of Mxtabs put the website back on-line with a letter explaining their position. In short, they believe that the purpose of Mxtabs is to "aid musicians in learning their instruments". They say that Mxtabs has accounted for as much as $3000 a month in sheet music sales, and offers many tablatures that do not have equivalent sheet music published, so Mxtabs and similar sites are the only place that musicians can find a way to play these songs (other than figuring the songs out for themselves). The letter concludes by pointing out that tablatures have never been proven to be illegal, then requesting that sheet-music companies contact Mxtabs in order to create a system of tablature licensing.
On February 29, 2008, MXTabs.net relaunched as the first legitimately licensed site designed to provide musicians with access to free tablatures, while also compensating music publishers and songwriters for their intellectual property. Similar to other user generated content sites, MXTabs.net users are encouraged to create, edit, rate, and review their own tablature interpretations of their favourite songs. However, unlike other user-generated content sites, only songs that have received explicit permission from participating copyright owners will be made available on-line.
Guitar Tab Universe
On 17 July 2006, Guitar Tab Universe (GTU) posted a letter on its home page that its ISP had been jointly threatened with legal action by the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and the MPA "on the basis that sharing tablature constitutes copyright infringement".[20]
In response, GTU's site owner(s) immediately created a website named Music Student and Teacher Organization (MuSATO) to attempt to reposition themselves from an illegal-copyrighted-materials provider to an "education provider". MuSATO's main objective is to use fair use as their rationale to publish tablature free of charge. By claiming to be an educational provider, they do not have to obtain publication rights nor pay royalties to the original composers. MuSATO claims to be educational by classifying users downloading tablatures as "music students" and transcribers as "music teachers".
Furthermore, MuSATO also argues that Internet guitar tablature does not infringe upon publishers' copyrights because the tablature it provides does not contain rhythmic information and therefore is not an entirely accurate representation of the song. However, it did not note that some lyrics provided are copyrighted. It has since removed lyrics from all tablature in an attempt to appease the NMPA.[citation needed] Tablature is not directly provided to users unless it is through the forum, where members link to other websites hosting tablature.
GuitarTabs.com has been contacted by the NMPA and MPA with similar copyright infringement allegations. The NMPA and MPA have also threatened Guitar Tab Universe with similar legal action. A copy of the certified letter received by the site owner, along with a brief note similar to the one posted on Mxtabs, has been posted on their website.[21]
OLGA.net
OLGA.net is another tablature site that has been removed after receiving letters from lawyers representing the NMPA and the MPA.[citation needed]
