Yeah, most of the "major" tab sites are down. RIAA at it again.

Majority of the tabs you find online are shit anyway, but it still sucks because it's a good resource to help when you're stuck on learning something.

I didn't realize that posting a tab that you created on your own from listening to it is considered copyright infringement.

I understand it is against the law, but it's still pretty lame. I like the quote in the actual letter that says that they need to stop posting tabs here like this to ensure that bands will have the means to make music for 'generations to come".

Copyright Infringement is what RIAA interprets it as, at least I feel in this case. Majority of the artists don't even publish songbooks or tab books to profit off of one way or the other. What is being tabbed and provided on the internet is one person's interpretation of a song, which if it helps someone to learn to play it would help perpetuate the cycle of music.

Next thing you know they'll be going after cover bands and karaoke.

yeah. I feel like there could possibly be something more important for them to be doing than this.

Of course there is.

So, do you play? Just curious as to how you found out. I just started at the beginning of the year myself.

Yeah. I have played for 13 years. I was trying to find tabs for Pavement's Carrot Rope.

Actually they can go after cover bands, bars/bands are suppose to have a BMI license to prevent possible legal entanglements. The reason some bars only allow original music is to prevent this sort of crap from happening. I believe all the Karaoke albums are licensed and released by a label with legal contracts with the original artists.

Awesome. You can still find some tabs when using google. They haven't shut them all down.

Just google tab, artist name, song name and it should come up.

It's got to be pretty tough to sue some band that plays all original stuff except for like one or two cover songs. Most bands play covers and I can't imagine they all have gotten rights to those songs.

I'm sure it is, but most bars get a BMI license anyway if they have a Jukebox, it is required if you are going to charge people to use it. Nowadays, a bar will get the BMI License and put a sticker on their door or window.
I also think most bands would get a cease and desist order before getting sued.

Makes you wonder what they really think this is going to solve, doesn't it? I mean, how much can an artist be losing by having tabs of their songs on the internet? Even the ones that do have published sheet music books don't sell THAT many, right?

Yeah, I don't get it. I'm not a true musician, so maybe I am missing something, but to me it seems no worse than putting the lyrics to songs on the internet that might not be included in an artist's liner notes.
I know I will look up the lyrics to songs I like that I have downloaded from Mp3 blogs.

i think the bit about preserving music for generatios to come is pretty ridiculous because I can't imagine you would speak to any professoinal musician that would care. I was just thinking about it some more and it's just pretty outrageous. I doubt the artists that are listed in the letter that was posted could give one shit about whether or not tabs were on the internet. Especially because they are the individual's interpretation of how the song goes. In a bit of a stretch, it would be like an author suing someone because they paraphrased their book and posted it on the web.