The Ibanez saga has finally come to a conclusion, and I have decided to keep my shiny new electric guitar, after buying an amplifier yesterday. It sounds incredible, it really does, and I'm really really happy with it! Now I want to go and find some interesting riffs and songs to learn, try to improve my playing. Except... You may be aware of the music industry crackdown on those sites that offer free transcriptions of guitar tabulations from thousands of songs, largely worked out aurally by individual musicians, shared with the rest of the global guitarist community. This online wealth of guitar tabs has long been a source of learning for budding guitarists, from the spotty long-haired teen in his suburban bedroom to the grey-haired smart-shoe-wearing Stratmeister in his personal countryside studio. And now the music industry fascists (I know, everyone's called 'fascists' these days, it's very fashionable) have deemed that this practice is illegal and must be stopped right now. Quite how this affects the music industry bigwigs' massive profits is uncertain; sharing info on how to interpret popular music is not the same thing as actually downloading music, it doesn't have a negative effect on CD sales and only serves to promote the artists. Hah! they say. We don't care! You'll have to buy the official printed version! Well, in most cases (high 90s, percent-wise, a statistic I'm basing on no data at all) this is unavailable. But this new online witch-hunt is deeply concerning, and opens the debate about how far the intellectual property laws should be realistically enforced. We all know about the downloading and filesharing purge; but where are the lines drawn? It is, for example, not illegal to sell a CD you bought, but it is illegal to sell a file you downlaoded, or even give it away; it is even illegal to sell an ipod which has files on it. But guitar tabs? They'll start fining people, then making money from those fines, and they'll think hello, $$$, and get bigger nets, go for more and more people. Traffic wardens and speed-cameras of the world-wide-web. If there is cash to be made, every penny counts. Do you think the musician will see much of it? Many musicians, even those with million-selling albums, openly encourage the guitar tab sites, for they promote their goods and make it more likely that people will buy their albums or go to their gigs. If someone learns the guitar riff to, for example, Formed a Band by Art Brut, they aren't then going to say, well I don't need to see them live now, I can just play it myself. What next? Will it be illegal to whistle Justin Timberlake songs to yourself while walking down the street (and I realise that that specifically should be illegal) , as it constitutes 'public performance'? Teaching a friend how to play a certain song? Or even describing a song, as that is essentially interpreting someone else's art? Corporate Totalitarianism, folks, it is here, it is everywhere, we cannot escape, we must only obey. I'm off to play my guitar; I think I'll write my own songs, except some of the notes may be copyrighted...
keeping tabs on musicians
5.9.06 20:56
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Adrian (6.9.06 13:14) I thought it was hypothetically illegal to resell albums that you've bought as well, doesn't notice about not broadcasting/copying etc also include resale? or am i just too used to promo copies? Are the police going to resort to entrapment, hanging out at rehearshal studios pretending to not know the fifth note to the middle 8 of stairway to heaven in the hope that someone will tell them it so that they can arrest them? |
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petescully (6.9.06 16:17) If they enforced the 'do not resell' rule on promos, the notting hill exchange shops would have gone out of business years ago. |
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petescully (6.9.06 22:36) The Music Industry should have Darth Vader work for them; after all, it was a filesharing violation that finished off the crew of the Tantive IV. Vader: "Several chord diagrams were downloaded onto this ship by rebel spies. I want to know what you have done this those songs!" Captain: "We downloaded no guitar tabs! Except for We're on a Submarine Mission!" Vader: "Where is the copyright agreement?" Perhaps it doesn't work. But you get the general idea. |
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