I can't believe this. I started off playing bass four years ago and started off by getting the tabs to Pixies songs. If I hadn't done that, I would be an absolutely s***e musician right now.

I also have to point out that MUSICIANS DO NOT MAKE A LIVING OFF TAB BOOKS AND SHEET MUSIC. This law trivialises music and as many people have said it's going to make it a lot tougher for beginners. It'll cost anybody who can't work out by ear a fortune trying to get tab books for every song they want to play and in the long run will probably discourage people from taking up instruments and will probably cause the music industry to spiral even more. Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic, but I know I won't ever buy a tab book, and I doubt many people I know would buy them either.

"Bite chew suck away the tender parts
I want to break it up I want to smash it up I want to f**k it up
I want to watch it come down
Maybe afraid of it let’s discredit it let’s pick away at it"

(ironically I got those lyrics from an "illegal" website, come sue me, MPA. Wait a second - does that mean that I'm not even allowed write up lyrics that I hear from the song here? Because surely this isn't a legal lyrics site either.)

Basically these tabs are created by the individuals themselves, not stolen from the band's "Underground Lair". If you are taking these tabs away then you are basically telling these fantastic guitarists that live all around us to stop playing music and teaching us how to play. You are basically saying that the only way that we hear music is not by the music community, but my the music corporation. Basically you pompous, ignorant corporates have too much free time on your hands. Why not try to stop the illegal downloading of music before you try to stop millions of hard working up and coming musicians from learning how to better themselves in a legally binding way. Pigs...

oh come on! youre breakin my balls!!

stupid mofo's how the **** are begginers gonna ****ing lean how to play guitar like theie ****ing heros....this is a ****ing outrage these ****ing people who made these ****ing laws should have a good hard look at themselves in ****ing the mirror...thank u brendan dewald i agree wif u completly...stupid mofos

What the hell is everybody problem. Ive been playing guitar for 4 years now and been using tab sites freely . Its not actually the original peice of music that is on the tab sites its what the person works out and putes it there so people can learn it .Why must this be done its dumb and childish people just looking for a reason to be stupid and moan why dont they get a real job and a real life .

What are you trying to accomplish from this? Many beginner guitarists learn from tabs, taking them away is not the way to go, your taking away the ability to learn something, is this another way you save the music industry, because believe me, this will destroy it, you basically raping millions of beginner guitarists of an ability to learn, good job. If you’re afraid of people stealing your music, believe me, if they are good enough to play the song live, on an album whatever, they are good enough to figure it out themselves, this is just some sick way of getting money, and the people that thought of this should be thrown in prison.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

if you think about it in relevence to how a library works its pretty much the same.
Say you gotta do a report, you check out a book, you read some articles in the book,
you have some jist of what the book is about in your head. you use your knowledge in your
head and regergitate some of it, maybe use some quotes for an argument.You cite the source and
whatnot. Tabbing music and having the availability of it over the internet is like having an accesible
online library available to all, no one is going to try to claim the song as thier own, if they shut down
tab sites, they need to shut down libraries in all fairness, which would be a ****ing stupid thing to do.
tabs are mostly our interpretation of the song, we dont get paid for it and we arent taking anything away

A Guitar Tabs that you get off the net are and always will be meerily an interpretation of the song that someone has figured out by either watching the said artist play the song live or listening to the song over and over again and trust me I know some bassists who will work out an entire album in the car on the way to a gig this is far from an impossible feat. Thats why at the begining of each tab there a message saying something along the lines of "this is meerily my interpretation of the song". These tabs are not always correct and almost never have the time signatures so many people if they want to cover the song perfectly will go an purchase the official tab and many of these so called "Illegal" sites have links to where you can do so. You would be surprised how many variations of a single song can exist. Many signed bands even have links on their sites to places where you can get tabs and post their own lyrics on their sites. This is just a shoddy try by the industry to bully us into buying their ridiculously overpriced tabulature books (£17 is simply ridiculous) and if we werent in the corperate world we are in today I would have expected it to get laughed out of court but nowerdays anythings possible in modern america. I just hope law doesnt spread over here to britain.

instead of blaming this and that, take action

blame metallica

People won't quit buying their product.
So, they will run amok as long as weakwilled, undereducated politicians allow.
And that applies to all countries, not just the US, though they seem to be the start of all this kind of nonsense.

Don't like them? Choke them to death by refusing to buy their crap and don't listen to a radio (they pay royalties according to listeners). No paid services like iTunes.

TIME TO TAKE ACTION NOW (here is how)
We all know that MPAA/MPA and RIAA have been targeting innocent or the people who can not defend themselves, so lets BOYCOTT the singers/bands/publishers etc who have been funding those organisations, and never buy anything they release? NOW?

its so simple ,dont buy any of the products ,bankrupt then ,have the last word

Yah,

The thing is people are creating these tabs themselves...a lot of times the tabs aren't even right, or exactly the same as the original tablature. When I tab a song I listen to it and then try to make the same sound...I don't always get it right, but it usually sounds the same.

Can you even imagine how crowded our jails would be if this actually went through?

They're overcrowded enough now as it is without adding half a billion people to them.

Out of every single person I know, including grandparents, I can think of a grand total of 7 who would not be going to jail.

Yeah, our legal system and penitentiary system can't even handle the load it has now, lets throw half the country into it to really fsck things up.

Absolutely brilliant. Whoever thought this up should be given the Nobel Prize for Stupid...

im sure these **Associations would have no problem with throwing half the country in jail, as long as its the half that wouldn't purchase (or so they think) their stuff. They've already made that perfectly clear, to me at least.

LOL, this is beyond laughable! How the hell do they lose money from lyrics??? Esp. if it doesn't include musical notation? Sure, lyrics are copyrighted, but as long as I'm not plagurizing they don't have a leg to stand on.

Not all bands have tabs to all their songs for sale. A few popular bands do, but that's about it.

It would be stupid to take all the tabs off, I understand taking the lyrics, but the tabs??

Wow, the Powers-That-Be in the music biz decided they just didn't have quiiiiiiiite enough enemies. This should remedy that nicely.

Ok folks, here's how it works:

§ 501. Infringement of copyright3

(a) Anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner as provided by sections 106 through 122 or of the author as provided in section 106A(a), or who imports copies or phonorecords into the United States in violation of section 602, is an infringer of the copyright or right of the author, as the case may be. For purposes of this chapter (other than section 506), any reference to copyright shall be deemed to include the rights conferred by section 106A(a). As used in this subsection, the term "anyone" includes any State, any instrumentality of a State, and any officer or employee of a State or instrumentality of a State acting in his or her official capacity. Any State, and any such instrumentality, officer, or employee, shall be subject to the provisions of this title in the same manner and to the same extent as any nongovernmental entity.

(b) The legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive right under a copyright is entitled, subject to the requirements of section 411, to institute an action for any infringement of that particular right committed while he or she is the owner of it.[...]

AND:

§ 106. Exclusive rights in copyrighted works36

Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:

(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;

(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;

(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and

(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

If any of you wish to read the entire text of the US Copyright Laws, you may do so at the following link:

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html

So now, if you still have issues, then run for Congress and work to change the copyright statutes.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Wow... I went to the site, and quickly became overwhelmed with the incredible volume and detail of our federal copyright law. It is nothing short of immense. I can see why lawyers would love it -- you need one to navigate it and understand it.

I'm sure we the taxpayers paid a hefty sum to quite a few lawyers to write such a huge and complex piece of law, so that later we can pay yet another group of lawyers to interpret it for us and fight over it in court. gotta love it.

this is an outrage. they're going to scour the web and take down ALL the lyric/tab sites? i see books in stores where tabs are published, is that illegal too? are they going to recall all those books or have them destroyed? why is it unlawful to look up lyrics to songs? i am quickly losing all faith in the music industry. down with the mpa, riaa and mpaa, you guys have completely lost your minds.

I wouldn't throw the MPAA in there quite yet, but I'm with ya on the RIAA and MPA. This is just BS.

Hey, guys....

MPA? I thought RIAA and the MPAA were enough.

Fine, hope RIAA can cope with this now. I'm out. They have pushed the market enough. Now one of their back-hills siblings is jumping on the bandwagon. It's just too much. It's nearly laughable, and entirely unjustifiable.

This is me doing an about-face on RIAA and their cronies. Enjoy it folks. Time for a little crow, I hear it tastes like chicken...

Any songs they do not want in the public domain should be banned from being played on the radio. The second it hits the free and public airwaves, they lose their rights to claim ownership or distribution rights.

This is ridiculous. If the artists no longer want their music to be talked about, listened to, played, or traded, then they really need to STOP MAKING IT.

This has gone way beyond a simple days pay for a days work.

As long as any lyrics quoted give proper reference/citation to the owner of the lyrics, (just as is expected for any quoted works in a book, magazine, website, etc.), I do not see how posting lyrics can be illegal in any way.

For the MPA to try to enforce any legal action against persons/organizations that follow accepted rules of reference, would be to challenge existig MLA (Modern Language Association) system of citation. The MLA handbook (2003 Edition) discusses how to cite Musical Composition, Sound Recording, Film or Video, and so on in Section 4b (general guidelines for listing authors).

To assert that the MPA can override accepted MLA rules for citation, would be to declare any and all composition that cite lyrics or excerpts of lyrics to be illegal. If such an argument could be upheld in court, you might as well sue everyone in the world for at one time or another violating the law.

What I find most concerning is that there appear to be TWO DISTINCT SETS OF LAWS (or certainly enforcement) when it comes to lyrics, tablature, or any other published works. One set for those works owned by large corporations, and another for works published by the rest of us. If I write my own lyrics and publish on my website, and others copy them, good luck if *I* want to sue someone -- I'll get nowhere... I am a nobody.

Well, we ALL have the power to stop the MPA and RIAA efforts. It is us, the consumers, who fund their operations through purchases of CDs/Movies, etc. We all like listening to songs and watching movies, and these organizations know that we will continue to do so (and continue funding their attack on US, the same persons they count on for funding). If we hate this action enough, we can STOP BUYING THEIR PRODUCTS.

Last, in all fairness to the MPA, I am guessing that many of the sites in question are not following the works-cited rules I mention above. Perhaps these sites should start there, and then they will have something to base a legal defense on if/when the time comes.

Its amazing that we let the RIAA and MPAA get away with this kind of crap.

albums aern't selling like they user to be thats for sure. music is going downhill anyway espacially in dance almost every dance song i hear these days is an 80's remix

next time you like a song, don't even hummm it or you'll get jail time!

tactics like this never work in the long term. I see a very strong underground music community in our future that will grow stronger with time.

to quote the princess "the tighter your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers"

the underground community will come to dominate, using the lowcost distribution of the internet as it's primary tool, and RIAA will become a coporate lesson learned.

man I hope I'm right

Uuugh I am so freakin sick of the RIAA. Enough already!

What is the problem with lyrics? Lyrics are a way for parents to encourage or discourage songs. Otherwise we have no idea what some songs are about... I think the industry just went too far...

No kidding I am a parent of a 2 year old child. A sticker doesn't work for me and it wont work for my son. Your likes in lyrics might not be mine. What offends you might not me, etc..

I'll never buy another album again! Its still possible to get them online even without all the p2p apps. I had stopped and actually bought a couple of albums in the lsat month, but this is beyond commerce. You know the two albums I bought didn't have the lyrics in them!? I personally like to know the lyrics to songs. If the artist doesn't want me to know them then don't make the music! Not to mention nearly any media player you can download has a lyric viewer builtin.

I wont rehash what everyone has said as it seems its clear what people think.

Just keep in mind that the RIAA includes the artist. The artist, not all, but most, are pushing this. They are all doing what they can because record sales have been, are and will be dropping. Instead of putting out better music or being more selective when signing a new artist.

And in truth it isn't that albums aren't selling like they use to be, its just that the growth in sales from year to year isn't there like it use to be.

what can I say, the music industry is getting creative by days. what's next? are they going to outlaw sing out loud and karaoke?

Three words, BeLOW me b****es. I doubt this can be done without finding loopholes around it. It is not copywrite if the lyrics arent exactly correct. If you look at it as an individuals personal interpretation of the songs (no matter how accurate they are to the artists), they are basically putting restrictions on how people are to think and share there thoughts. You can also relate this to, dare i say, Vanilla ice's murder of the great Queen song, his very slight subtle change made it legal. Doesn't this mean that P diddy and other beat theives like him will be put out of work, if so, i guess one good thing will come from it. Ha Ha. And what about playing covers, is that illegal too, i doubt there is a single band out there that hasn't played a cover or two. If you need lyrics to a song, email me, and i will be glad to make a recording of myself speaking them, try and stop that, you greedy c***slobs. In closing, i refer to my previous statement. Blow Me b****es.

First they glue you, then they sue you. We are but the flies sticking in their nets.

Corporations are treated like human persons before the law, but do not care about human worths at all.

Freedom's just a mockery. On every dollar bill they say "in god we trust", but the bill is all they really care about.

This is the glorious USA, built on the blood of human beings from the beginning. And even their foundation was about nothing but money - tax money. Go ahead and try a similar thing nowadays in the USA.

"Freedom" and "Democracy" is just the non existing rationalization with which they have brainwashed the whole world for ages.

Did you know that IBM not only supplied the NAZIs their early punching card systems for use in their concentration camps, but also maintained them? So they must have known about what was going in the concentration camps, but: where money is the highest worth, not even millions of corpses are bothering anybody.

So - why is anybody astonished about such laws and judicial practics...

And - btw - read Charles d***ens -- good lord, not even names are aloud any more - - "Little Dorrit" or other works, then you'll have the picture of debtor's prisons, which we soon will have again, like many other practics from the "noble ages" . . .

...ok...I can see the RIAAs point when they sue someone to protect their intellectual property and for going after those who download the music without paying for it, it's damaging to their reputation but understandable...this on the other hand...this is going TOO FAR....what the hell is the RIAA thinking? Now it's illegal to even get the lyrics to your favorite songs? That's pathetic.

What I'm wondering is if they're going to prosecute their own artists, because let's face it most people that learn to play an instrument, specially guitar, will search for tabs of music that they like, for practice and to play them because they're good.
I think that most famous musicians will be included in the law-suites.
STUPID!

P.S. on further note i am placing a copyright on the words I, YOU, them, we, us, and, others.
get ready to pay me my fee's

I say we send in a counter suit. because the way i can look at this is fine BUT if my kids like a song that gives my kids the wrong MSG. say if the song stated. all men are evil but for Iraq men. should i be able to take them to Cort for letting my kids hear that statement when i didn't know it was in the song? I think NOT. i want to know what msg's are embedded in the music my kids listen too. i also do this to help me relate to my kids. when my kids have a prob. as of now i use my kids music to help me talk about the problem. and gives us something to relate too.

Can you see where this is all leading?

A "I heard this great song!"
B "How does it go?"
A "I'm not allowed to tell you"
B "What are the words?"
A "Can't tell you that either."

:-/

I'll be damned if it's true. And, at this rate, it will be.

So let me get this straight they are suing sites that supply the lyrics for songs is that right. If so this is the most stupid thing i have ever heard some albums i own have the lyrics printed in the little wallet book thingy, what's that all about?

They tried all of this already in the past. They shut down many lyrics sites. If these thieves are allowed to go on with this insane law enforcement to oblige people to buy anything and comparing copying to stealing then soon it won't be possible to find any info on the 'net for free. Everything will need you to use a credit card or other form of payment and pay, pay, pay and pay again and again even more.
Soon even publishing an article or a guide explaining how to compress audio, video or how to author a DVD, or anything else, like how an engine works, will be banned and will be considered as copyright infringement.

dose this mean that if i listen a song and wirte down the lyric and share with others,then i just have a nice reason to be put in jail??? so they have to control my brain so i could lose the capability to remember a song.next,how about i sing a song on street?am i pirating ???because other people can hear it and remember it??S***

yeah this is utter stupidity on there part. what next if i dedicate a song to someone that is illegal too?

I just hope they don't go after my highly illegal large collection of MIDI, RMI, and ST music.

THEY'RE BUSTING IN WITH IRON CLAD BOOTS AND GUNS OH S___!

I swear this is some of the dumbest crap I've heard lately. These sites have been around almost as long as the internet has, and NOW they want to take action?

I think I'm about to be physically ill.

And they wonder why there sales are going down (other than crappy music) we have had it with all this bs. You want money ? Be Original do something worth our money and time .... Same goes for movies how many more herbie remakes can there be ? Arrrrrrrggggg

This is all Metallica's fault, right?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

First they act like they don't want to do videos, then they get a taste of the cash and yes now look what they have started! I am sure there is someone from Metallica's camp calling the Record Industry everyday to see what new things they can do to get one more album sold. What do they care they have pissed off most of their entire base of real fans.

If you buy a Metallic album instead of downloading it YOU SHOULD GO TO JAIL! So please, please don't encourage them. Stop buying their crappy music!

hee hee, this reminds me of the essay I was writing last night, where I am to "give credit where it is due."

The book says "no part of the material protected by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner."

Kinda makes it hard to do an essay and include quotes.

Fair Use would protect a limited number of quotations of copyrighted work for criticism. Distribution of a whole copy would run into infringment. Copyrights don't give their holders absolute control over their works so your example doesn't seem terribly relevant to the article.

Sheesh, what are they thinking about, or better, ARE they even thinking? :rolleyes:

People need lyrics for various reasons, which certainly are not to steal someone's work. People like to sing along to songs, but not all songs are in a person's native language, so they need some help to sing along, or to translate & actually understand a song.

Also, not every CD (better said almost NO CD) I ever bought has the lyrics in them. I'm glad that the album "In Search of Angels" by the Scottish band Runrig actually HAS lyrics in there, because now try to sing along to "Cho Buidhe Is A Bha I Riabh". That's quite something even if you have the lyrics to it, lol :P

Also, to anyone who can remember the good old days...artists shared their songs with each other, and were happy when the others got a success out of it. Like "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da". Written by Lennon/McCartney, but became a hit for the band Marmalade.

It's just as rediculous as going to a concert paying $100+ dollars for a seat and not even be allowed to take a picture or film or anything. Crazy people. (I remember, sometime between 1994 and 1997, don't know exactly anymore, there was an open air concert of Backstreet Boys and Aaron Carter in a soccer stadium in my city, and people were allowed to take pictures and film and whatever). Times sure have changed for the worse. :(

No wonder that there are illegal sites, bootlegs and what not all.

I PREFER to buy my CDs at a store, but with all that s*** going on also regarding copy protection with spyware, I'd rather stay with the stuff I have and just don't buy anything anymore.

They are thinking about easy ways to steal money from people by paying Judges and politicians to be allowed to use law enforcement and oblige people to pay. That has nothing to do with capitalism, that's just part of totalitarism, communism/nazism applied to western economy by '68s people.

Pretty soon the recording companies will attempt to claim copyright to musical notes, chords, chord progressions and scales...then artists will have to pay them to even write songs.

This has to be the most insane thing I have heard to date. Death to fat, greedy record companies.

So... wanna go torch some houses? I gots some kerosene.

Displaying lyrics of songs is the equivalent of "publishing" which is an exclusive right of a publisher under the copyright act. The copyright owner has every right to pursue someone who violates their exclusive rights. Legal right aside, the moral propriety of IP enforcement in this circumstance is highly questionable. The proverbial cat is out of the bag and the industry hopes to recapture it through intimidation.

I would categorize these times as the decade of Parasitic IP Terrorism.

To me this comes down to once again the record companies showing that they are behind the times. Lyric sites have been around for a long time. Its obvious that people want them.
So why haven't the record companies provided a way for them to be seen? Why must they always resort to playing catchup?
I suppose people wouldn't want to pay even a small fee. I still think they are jumping on the bandwagon too late.

I think there should be a boycott on ALL music industry companies, to let them know who has the power (the consumer) but as it is really hard to make something that large happen , i guess we are stuck getting attacked by the ones that want us to buy their products.

people don't care enough to boycott, we simply need a competeing organization with grass roots appeal

cdbaby.com

two words:
What the hell?!

Why does everyone seem so surprised? I saw this coming for a long time. Don't be surprised when the day comes, you won't be allowed to type names of songs to your buddy on AIM. Or you won't be able to talk on the phone with copyrighted material playing in the backround. Think im nuts, in 20 years come back and tell me if I'm nuts. Peace out.

So it is!

And, maybe, one day the makers of so called "talk shows" will claim their copyright on every spoken word in their "shows".

Peace to you, too!

I agree w/ y'all. Illegal downloading is one thing, but this lyric thing is patently ridiculous.
It's tragic how many lost their lives to save the world from first the Fascists, then the Communists & now the Islamist extremists-- but sad to say, the Western world is doing a complete 360 degree about-turn towards their foes' ways. Under the guise of stamping out immoral behaviour, affronts against Christianity, drugs/narcos, money launderers, problem gamblers, terrorists, illegal downloaders, etc. the West is headed towards a combo Fascist Talibanism-- the only difference between that & what a Stalin or Bin Laden would impose is the 'kindler, gentler, & more civilized manner' it's applied up the masses's collective rear end.
Speaking of masses, we're in a real heap of touble precisely because of the mass sheep mentality nowadays: very few are speaking up for their rights--most polls taken yield majority approval for the slew of intrusive & onerous laws making their way into the books: whatever it takes to stamp out whatever perceived/potential damage/dangers is the excuse of the day.

When will this stop, they are certainly biting the hand that feeds them as most young musicians starting out learn from other artist! I hope if young artist become good they sell their own music and not go to industry!

This is the daftest thing I've read in some time.

I'm sure there's a lot of people who hear a song and don't know the artist or track. They look up the lyrics, and, *shock*, they buy the album.

pretty soon every company will do the same thing..and it'll be illegal to say "all your base are belong to us"

Especially when the linguistic officers start monitoring our conversations on the streets. >:(

I'm confused Tab sites are just the way someone interperts the song. They are not the official tabs, thoes are much more complex and you buy at music stores. This is sad, next year they are going to start sueing people playing there music in there car too loud because they dont wany anyone else at a red light to hear the song for free... Apple or some company needs to oust the industry all together and put there own studios up and distribute the music straight from there to iTunes. I can see how producers are expensive and charge alot to turn singers like Ashley simpson into something that wont blow my speakers but they do not cost 20 Billion a year.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, don't get a song stuck in your head!

Maybe they should print their list of demands on each cd label and then check the sales numbers. This crap is just like door locks… it only deters the honest people. If someone really wants the lyrics, the sheet music, the illegal downloads, they are going to find a way.

*sighs*

At this rate, you won't even be able to mention the name of your favorite band or favorite song without being faced with some lawsuit.

Morons.

Woah, what the heck? So I guess the site I have for my favourite artist needs all the lyrics removed from the pages now? God, what a joke. I always knew lyrics were copyright to an individual, but I didn't think quoting it was something so sinful. If I listen to songs myself and write down what I think the lyrics are, I'm infringing copyright? Better sue me for listening to it too, because then the lyrics are being imprinted in my brain and I might discuss what the lyrics are with someone else, noooo! Everyone take cover, this is just going to ruin all musicians!!! Quick, sue everyone!

I bet there is going to be a huge increase of shared lyrics on P2P networks from now on, since they are banned from the web.

Heard about this a few days ago. To me there are only a few reasons why people use websites to look up lyrics. Either you can't figure some line in the song after hearing it 20 times, or you only remember a couple lines and want to figure out the track name and/or artist so you can potentially buy (or download) it.

The way I see this shutting these sites down will only hurt sales. Nobody is going to buy a CD in hopes that the liner notes have the lyrics printed, since so many albums don't. And if you don't know the artist or track name, sure it might stop you from grabbing it off p2p, but it also stops you from buying the CD or track off of iTunes.

I can see the stuff about full sheet music and/or guitar tabs, but for lyrics sites it is only going to hurt their album sales. Or am I missing some big reason why people visit these sites which would cause people not to buy the music?

I couldn't agree more.

I have no idea where these record execs come up with this crap.

Oh well....you can't fix stupid.

This is amazing… next it will be illegal to do a cover tune in a garage band. Music is to be shared and enjoyed, you shouldn't have to carry a receipt for all your music so that the cd police won't arrest you. I had no idea that this stuff is a copyright infringment. I am really getting to the point that I will not buy any music based on the principle of starving these greedy record companies. I can't believe these idiots are working so hard to turn the consumer agaist the very product they are attempting to protect. Silly fools...

In some countries RIAA/MPAA local organizations oblige people to pay a fee to be allowed to sing a song and record anything in your garage and such... unless no one can hear you in order to sue you if you don't pay.

In SOME countries ? How about the little town I live in, in New Mexico? The local bars can't allow bands to play pop songs because someone from the RIAA came by and told them they had to start paying royalties.
Sad but true.
Sorta glad I can live day to day without music, they don't have any stranglehold on me in that dept.

This is ludacris. We're going to be living under Communist totallitarion rule soon. Now, suing somone for downloading music has theoretical profit loss (I stress theoretical!). If they must sue, I personally think that you should be fined realisticly; you have to pay the cost of the CD if you bought it at a store. Maybe a penalty fee. But thousands of dollars? That's just trying to prove points, a scare tactic some poor woman has to deal with so we can "get the message."

And now trying legal action against song lyric websites? What are they trying to say, that the only legal way to own the lyrics is inside the store-bought jackets? And they actually plan on ENFORCING that?! I don't know how many times I've seen somone's blog quoting songs. Shall we sue them too? How about if I sing it? Surely that's a copyright infringement... where does it stop? We would have laughed if we heard about this 5 years ago.

Am I the only one who thinks this is insane?

Holy crap!! I can see where they might want to take guitar tabs off of the internet (even though I like being able to look up how to play a song, or at least how another person thinks it goes), but song lyrics too! I mean, what if I write a paper that references some song lyrics, am I going to have to pay to use it? It's not as if I am trying to take credit for it or anything. Is that even illegal? Aren't we free to quote things anymore? Maybe we should be careful even quoting what the music industry says in these articles, they might sue for that too. This is crazy!

waaa this is a friggen ethnic cleansing of their fan base!! embrace the art you a$$hats!

This is F**king rediculous... I never knew that lyrics database-websites are illegal. Someone or something needs to shut down the MPA and NMPA before they start trying to take CDR's and blank tapes off of the store shelfs.

The MPA is G-A-Y!

Isn't it the exact same thing as printing lyrics inside CD covers?

Earth Odyssey 2010: Music Industry to Attack People Whistling Their Favourite Songs

great minds think alike!

Earth Odyssey 2012: Music Industry to Attack People who dont have proof of purchases for mps, cds, etc.

Earth Odyessey 2014: Music Industry renames itself to the thought police and makes laws imprinting a chip in your head to fine you every time you THINK about the words of a song

Earth Odyessey 2020: Thought Police effectively rid the world of all forms of art and are no longer needed. Guitars hang in museums but noone remembers what they were ever for, some speculate that they were some kind of weapon used to fight hideous greedy beasts from the dark ages

Next they will be suing someone for humming a song to themselves because it is stuck in their head or someone who whistles while they work....what a joke.

I'm confused...Why can't wee see the lyrics to songs we like? I mean we could always play 'em over n over again. But by the time we learn the lyrics we're gonna be tired of the song!!! lol I don't get it...

I dare say more: imagine people who are not native speakers. I am not a native speaker and without printed lyrics I understand about a half of every other song. I hope the industry will prepare some instrumental versions, e.g. the songs of Cassandra Wilson or Leonard Cohen. LOL!

could someone explain to me how making artist lyrics available for free hinders the arist whatsoever? Is this just a power trip by the RIAA? Is there currently some service that actually requires people to pay to see song lyrics that they're supporting as the "legal alternative"? Talk about petty.

text removed.

they have to have something else to do next year...going after file sharing is getting old i guess

If they really feel this strongly about it, they should have done something like this long, long ago when it started. Sorta like letting people steal my garbage for 4 years, but waiting until they find my old credit card # in it before sueing them or saying it's illegal. If it's wrong it's wrong--I'm not saying whether it is legal or not. You get my point though, right?

I bet thou that over 99 percent of the people that downloaded that had no idea it was illigal, including me.

I didn't.

Seeems like they want to put their lawyer to do some work instead of getting annual fees and do nothing. I guest their next target would probably be CD/DVD cover site, then wallpaper site.

It doesn't surprise me. It is copyrighted work. Even if they never explicitly copyrighted the lyrics themselves an artist could always argue that the lyrics are a derivative work of the original song recording which is protected. Of course these days copyrights are automatic. One only has to file for an application with the copyright office if you plan on suing someone for infringement of the copyright. Accordingly unless you know for certain the owner of a work has placed it in the public domain or it is at least 95 years old it should be assumed that it is still protected by copyright.

Maybe I should register some URL's:
Line0to5.nl (sorry, I'm dutch)
Line6to10.nl
Line11to15.nl
etc,
Than I just quote a few lines of a song on each site... someone else can probably make a nice program to assemble it al together again....

And then you'd both get sued.