Internet sharing of chords, lyrics targeted..sheet music thi

Poststructural Pub
1

this time in the next round in the internet music fight: From the CBC:

Internet sharing of chords, lyrics targeted
Last Updated Fri, 09 Dec 2005 12:06:15 EST
CBC Arts
The U.S.-based Music Publishers Association is calling for a halt to websites that share song chords and lyrics.

The move is an escalation in the copyright war against file-sharing on the internet.

Guitar licks and song scores are widely available on the internet but are “completely illegal,” association president Lauren Keiser told the BBC.

The sites seldom have sheet music, such as a music publisher would print, but outline guitar chords for amateur musicians trying to pick out their favourite songs. They also have text of the lyrics.

Amateur guitarists and bass players have long copied popular songs by ear. The internet has become an alternative source for when they can’t figure out a chord.

Keiser called for closing of sites that share guitar licks and lyrics and recommended jail time for site administrators who don’t comply.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision in June opened the door for lawsuits against file-sharing websites, especially those that encourage sharing of songs and movies.

The recording industry has begun taking action against websites and software developers, but this is the first salvo by music publishers.

“The Xerox machine was the big usurper of our potential income,” Keiser said. “But now the internet is taking more of a bite out of sheet music and printed music sales so we’re taking a more proactive stance.”

This week U.K. music publisher Warner/Chappell sent a cease-and-desist letter to the developer of song-lyric search software, pearLyrics.

The company claims pearLyrics “enables people to copy and download lyrics” and that is a copyright infringement equivalent to copying songs online.

PearLyrics worked with Apple’s iTunes, searching the internet to find lyrics for songs in a user’s collection.

“I just don’t see why pearLyrics should infringe the copyright of Warner Chappell because all I’m doing is searching publicly available websites,” pearLyrics developer Walter Ritter said.

Ritter has complied and killed the application. However, there are dozens of other search engines, including general-use search engines such as Explorer, that can be used to search for song lyrics.

The MPA plans a co-ordinated legal campaign in 2006, targeting the largest, most popular sites that carry song scores and lyrics, according to Keiser. The association has not said which sites it intends to shut down, but says it will pursue strong legal action.


Copyright ©2005 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved

So get what you can when you can get it!

MarkB

2

Geez, Mark, maybe the next thing they’ll go after is people copying newswire stories. :laughing:

I never understood the complaint about copying lyrics. I can’t think of any way in which it hurts the artist or publishing company. Maybe they’re better off if someone sings it with the wrong lyrics or doesn’t like it because he hears the wrong lyrics or can’t understand a damn word that comes out of the singer’s mouth??

3

Louie Louie !!

4

This development is sick. Interested, involved consumers consume more, not less (I didn’t steal anything in my whistle collection, but I shamelessly copied a few designs for DIY’s!). When I learn a tune off an internet tab that was thoughtfully and generously created by another interested amature, I am far more likely to spend $$ on concert tix and CDs.

I saw some recent data that addresses the issue of (audio) downloading vs. consumerism - anyone got that handy?

5

I’ll go along with all this police crap when I know that everyone artist that belongs to ASCAP, BMI, etc. actually gets some type of re-embursement from all this collecting of fees (and not just the lawyers).
I won’t hold my breath, however…

6

The Globe and Mail already have enough on their plate right now, with a case going to the Canadian Supreme Court. The problem is if you just post the link, very few people go and read it, if I post the story without references then I could be accused of just making it up. So I go for the full citation of an article.

The music recording industry, music publishing industry don’t seem to understand that the cat is out of the bag, and the barn door is wide open.

MarkB

7

Those b@$t@rd f^x. This really gets me going. If I knew how to organize an international protest I would stage a one-month no music purchases of any kind through legal channels. That includes iPods and mp3’s, etc. We can live without them a lot more than they can live without us. This is just gouging by the reptiles. Most of the stuff people share in lyrics and notes/tablature isn’t even available from the music publishing industry.

djm

8

Yeah! I’ll donate my last SOCAN cheque to the cause ($2.73 Canadian).

(Please forgive my hyperbole)

9

I wounder what the implications are for our public library system. Seems like a universal book burning to me. I am with you djm, stop supporting the entertainment industry for a month or two and see if they change there tone.

Take care

Tom

10

Great idea. But how to make it happen.

11

one thing I try to do is purchase all CD’s directly from the artist, if possible. Other than Elderly Music, I can’t think of the last time I purchased a CD through a store or third person vendor (I only did the Elderly because I couldn’t find a website for the CD I wanted).

12

Imagine a world where all culture needs royalties. What if you had to pay to sing the “Happy Birthday to You” song? Imagine telling a class room that they could not sing that song on a friend’s birthday. Because the royalties were not paid.

Oh wait, you don’t have to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You

This pales to the Australian Copyright laws that effectively makes it so that there is no public domain

13

yeah- “Happy Birthday” is the song I refer to when talking about the stupidness of this stuff. Most people think that restaurants sing their own little versions to be “cute” - not realizing it’s because of the copyright laws.

FYI - I have nothing against paying someone for intellectual property use, and we paid all our fees to Harry Fox for our CD, or directly to the composer in one case.
I have a problem paying lawyers, and the artist getting little or nothing of the payments. One friend told me he’s been a member of either ASCAP or BMI (I forget which) for over 25 years, and has gotten one check for $22 in all that time. He still thinks that one was a mistake.

14

This is so bizarre :astonished:

Whats next? The Music Publishers Association will lead a small squad of pub spies taking notes of buskers and live musicians playing anything not in public domain?

Will it be legal to learn a tune by ear without first making a purchace?

I wonder how long it will take before the artists them selves get fed up with this exorbitant behaviour and distribute their work with some sort of GNU license?

/MarcusR

15

I have heard that this is exactly what has been happening in some bars in Ireland and England, but I don’t know if it is true or just scaremongering. Apparently these guys go in looking for sessions or bands playing what may have been thought to be public domain music. The owners must pay licensing fees to be allowed to have the music played there at all.

djm

16

Already happening:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=23326

17

Blackbeer wrote:

I wounder what the implications are for our public library system. Seems like a universal book burning to me.

Believe Blackbeer I have thought hard on that question of copyright. Even before the internet, when all libraries in Canada must pay a fine…ah a fee to CanCopy for the photocopying of Canadian author works’. Twelve years ago I broached the question to my colleagues, “what if all authors and publishers who have material in our library wanted a fee for photocopying?” They laughed at me and bascially said that’s ridiculous!

Is it! Not anymore! As the music librarian in this large system, I have sheet music going back a century, plus what I have added since being here, and it covers all genres of music. I have 18,000 CD collection that isn’t until recently copy protected by DRMs. And beleive me the public knows that those CDs aren’t copy protected.

I’m waiting for the knock at the door!

Bill Gates locked up the rights to the images to all the works of art in the Hermitage. Go ahead use a picture of a work that’s in the Hermitage for your school paper and Billy will be knocking on your door.

I really feel the intellectual chill coming into the fine arts and performing arts, if there is even a hint that you have used some idea or part of an idea in your work that MIGHT have been created by someone else, you would be better off studying law.

MarkB

18

Another side effect of copyright is that it can be used to censor. Do you ever think that Disney will re release “Songs of the South” in the US? Many works are becoming obscure, not by lack of demand, but because the copywriter holder would rather sit and do nothing rather than allow his/her work to go public. You may say that that is the holder’s right, but considering that copyright originally was designed to encourage works of art, this practice seems to do the opposite than its original intention and does not seem like the intended “right” of the copyright owner.

19

I have been surprised when I did run across sheet music by living composers or things still copyright protected. I think those services, where you pay a buck or two to buy a song are okay.

For trad/folk tune grabbers, we are usually on safe ground anyway, with the exception of the occasional John Whelan or McCosker ditties, for example.

Some lawyer is trying to justify his existence. They have periodic outbreaks here, where they go in and harass businesses who have the radio on and insist that they purchase Muzak-type tapes so that all royalties are paid.

20

By the way, the practice of suing chord and lyrics websites is as old
as the Web. Olga.net all but shut down back in the 90’s because of
threats from the record labels.