Canadian's supporting free online music education!
Recently there has been an intimidation campaign by the MPA
(Music Publishers' Association) which has scared most guitar
websites with tablature into either shutting down entirely
or removing their tablature sections. The website owners have
been accused of copyright infringment and have been threatened
with legal action. It's a very sad situation for all of us -
the online musician community. The MPA is working hard to
deprive its customers of the effective, inspiring and sometimes
indispensable resources they use to improve their guitar skills!
There is no way to dispute the fact that free online tablature
resources have fostered an explosion in the popularity of guitar-playing
worldwide. Without those resources, there would absolutely be fewer
guitarists which would mean a smaller market for the MPA-made products! Regardless of how illogical and myopic their planning is, there
is a much more important reason why this campaign must not and
can not succeed. In every country we know of, there exists no law
prohibiting people from teaching eachother to play guitar for free
using tablature. The MPA is counting on portions of the U.S. Copyright
Law to lend their outrageous demands credibility. The problem for them
is that they have failed to acknowledge the 'fair-use' exception in
that same law. The exception, in these cases, provides protection
from prosecution to free online tablature websites when threatened
by groups doing such things as what the MPA is attempting.To learn more about this issue, check out this Wikipedia entry containing information as to what's going on.Also, the newly formed group 'MuSATO' (the 'Music Student and Teacher
Organization') has the mission statement "Fighting for the freedom to
fairly use tablature in online education.". WE FULLY SUPPORT MuSATO
AND ARE DOING ALL WE CAN AS INDIVIDUALS TO HELP THEM FIGHT THIS RUTHLESS
MPA CAMPAIGN AGAINST FREE MUSIC EDUCATION. There will be many terrible
consequences if the MPA succeeds. For instance, the MPA would not even allow
volunteer-made tablature to be shared for free on any website EVEN WHEN NO 'OFFICIAL'
TABLATURE FOR THAT SONG EXISTS FOR SALE ANYWHERE!!! Especially for people who are
often physically very far away from any music stores because, perhaps, they live
in small towns or developing countries... how will they be able to educate themselves
unless there are websites where they can study, teach, and collaborate?None of the tablature at this website is for sale anywhere, including this
website itself. All access here is completely free, and that's the way it should be.Please recognize that the ability to preserve these highly-effective and insipiring
(as well as indispensable, to many) learning resources lies with YOU and the choices
that you make now and up until the MPA realizes their mistake. It is difficult for
individual website owners and tablature enthusiasts to fight the MPA alone. Our
power lies is our numbers and our passion for learning as well as sharing knowledge
with eachother as musicians. We must unite with the objective of protecting our rights.
We cannot afford to have anyone be intimidated by the size of some legal fund the MPA
has set aside for running these communal knowledge eradication efforts.Check out the MuSATO Website for more info and seriously consider joining (sign-up
is free, your privacy is protected, and 'spam' is forbidden, etc.) We hate to be the bearers of bad news here but public awareness of this massive attempt
at exploitation of aspiring musicians worldwide is crucial! Please share the information
here with any other musicians you know, as well as anyone you know who could possibly get
this story more publicity.Regardless of these gloomy current events, there is still very much hope! Keep a positive
outlook! Also, keep rocking... so keep playing guitar... as well as learning more and more
each and every day!Beavertabs home