Moore backs campaign to save guitar website
 

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/moore%20backs%20campaign%20to%20save%20guitar%20we bsite_1006713


SONIC YOUTH's THURSTON MOORE is backing a campaign to save a website used by millions of aspiring rockers to learn how to play the guitar. The SUGAR KANE star wants to prevent the Guitar Tab Universe site from being closed down by America's National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) and the Music Publishers' Association (MPA). Both organisations have written to the website's owners expressing their concern that sharing tablatures online breaks copyright laws and asking for them to be removed. Guitar Tab Universe boss ROB BALCH has refused to comply, leading to the NMPA and the MPA to contact the website's internet service provider. But Moore has thrown his weight behind Balch's stance. On the website's homepage, Moore writes, "So lots of respect for all you boys and girls out there who tab out songs like all the time. You bring rock and roll music closer to the people." A spokesman for the NMPA says, "We will take all appropriate steps to remove unauthorised sheet music and tablature versions from the internet that do not respect the rights of songwriters, especially those who flagrantly violate our copyrighted works to profit for themselves."

hell yeah... the tmooredinga drives an exeptional point. so what if someones learning your song... at least they like the song.

mac

I call horse shit...

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/...ercent_tab.htm

This tab was posted on Ultimate-Guitar, or somewhere else, a long time ago. I first discovered it there in 2005. I don't know if it is really him or not. But he says "So lots of respect for all you boys and girls out there who tab out songs like all the time. You bring rock and roll music closer to the people" (toward the bottom of the page). Perhaps he posted the tab himself on "Guitar Tab Universe", but he certainly did not say it in response to the MPA trying to shut down GTU.

oh yeah i went to the guitar tab website and there was a picture of him and like some comments he made about saving the website. i thought it was funny

hmm sounds like thurston tabbed the song... im not sure

But regardless, if it was him or not, it was said long before the MPA started shuting down tab sites. (the tab site that I linked to is based in Russia, and therefore the same laws do not apply. So it is still up and running)

I don't even understandl the copyright infringement : can someone enlighten me ?

I mean : when a band issues a record, does it also publish tabs or something?
Or does copyright also apply to all representations of a song ?
I understand that someone would want to shut down a website selling guitar tabs without the consent of the band, but if it gives them away for free then what's the big deal?
Take SY for instance : they don't have official tabs of all their goddamn recordings. I believe they have them somewhere on a music sheet in their studio, but it's not like a published score. Why the hell would they not want tabs circulating on the internet ?

if tab books weren't so expensive, badly distributed, elitist (do we need five different guitar books for the latest nickleback offering and have no isis or neurosis tab books?) and inaccurate, then would there be a need for such a website?

same shit as the recording industry.

who is making money off of tabs?

-publishing companies (the ones who manage copyrighted material for writers and composers)
-editorial houses, some of which are major label's branches.

doing a tab for a song is like doing a cover, you need to ask for permission and negotiate royalties or whatever to get 'em out. also there's exclusivity deals all around so if, say guitar world prints a tab of a song, if they have a deal with the publisher, guitar player can't print a tab for the same song. there's a lot of money to be made.

That tab is bullshit. '100%' has always been played in F#F#F#F#EB, since 1992.

How do you know he didn't just make a quick version for standard tuning?

I know the tab isn't how they play it, but that doesn't mean it isn't him. But if it is him or not, he obviously didn't say those things to Guitar Tab Universe.

Thanks for the info Moshe. Thurston rules!

Just because it was played in F#F#F#F#EB doesn't mean it is impossible to play it any other way. :rolleyes:

There are many way to play the same song. And that is hardly enough to prove that it wasn't him.

Maybe he is just chaning it to standard tuning for the masses.
Again, I'm not saying it is or isn't him, but I'm just playing devil's advocate.

That is true. But I guess we won't really know.

But we do know that he isn't supporting GTU and they took a quote from him that sounds like he was.

SY haven't toured with an EADGBE guitar for an amazingly long long time.

It's not too often that ultra-hip music people make the front page of The Daily Telegraph's Business section, but Mr Moore did on the 30th August. My scan:



The text, as it's difficult to read:

Website for aspiring guitarists fights to keep music playing
By Dominic White Communication, Industries Editor
(Filed: 30/08/2006)

Websites used by millions of aspiring musicians to learn the guitar risk being unplugged by America's music industry.
advertisement

Fresh from successful campaigns to close down illegal music file-sharing sites, the industry's latest target is Guitar Tab Universe, which offers thousands of songs in simple "tablature" form for guitarists who can't read music.

The National Music Publishers' Association and the Music Publishers' Association wrote recently to the site's owner, stating that sharing tablature constitutes copyright infringement, and asking it to take the site down. When it refused, they approached the site's internet service provider.

In a statement on the site, Guitar Tab Universe's manager Rob Balch describes the NMPA's threat as "an attack on every one of you who has told someone (in person, or via the written word, telephone, or email) how you play a song on guitar".

A spokesman for the NMPA refused to comment on the case, but said: "We will take all appropriate steps to remove unauthorised sheet music and tablature versions from the internet that do not respect the rights of songwriters, especially those who flagrantly violate our copyrighted works to profit for themselves."

Guitar Tab Universe invites its users to express their opinion to the NMPA and MPA via their websites. It adds: "Please do not resort to vulgar language or insults."

Its campaign has already won the support of Sonic Youth's guitarist Thurston Moore, who is quoted on its home page as saying: "Lots of respect for all you boys and girls out there who tab out songs like all the time. You bring rock 'n' roll music closer to the people."

Thurston Rocks! I think loads of artists should support this. Perhaps the artists themselves should host their tabs on their own website (SY Style!). Anyone who plays the guitar knows that these internet tabs are invariably incorrect. They are just individual interpretions. This is simply no different to figuring out how to play a song and showing your friends how to play it. Internet tabs have done more to encourage people to pick up the guitar than anything, and this is just another step towards destroying the community spirit of the internet!