Tablature - Legal Issues

Legal Issues

There has been much controversy over the legal position of tablature available on the Internet, as many Internet tablature websites provide user-created tablature without properly acquiring a print license from, or paying royalties to, the original songwriter and, often, the music publisher that controls these licenses. Although many of the Internet tablature websites that offer user-created tablature do not charge consumers for these transcriptions, revenue generated from advertising on these websites is typically kept by the website owners as profit, or used to cover the website's maintenance costs, and no – or very limited – royalties are received by the original songwriter. Further, music publishers and artists have been wary to license content to certain user-generated tablature websites because of quality issues with the tablature created by amateur users.

Such free Internet tablature sites often attempt to defend themselves by claiming to be educational providers or non-profit organizations, even if not formally registered as such. This leads to considerable difficulty justifying the service as legal under the fair use doctrine of copyright law (see Fair use as a defense). The legality of free Internet tablature served by such websites is disputed, largely because websites have thus far only been threatened with legal action; the issue has yet to be taken to court.

As of December 12, 2005, distributing free tablatures of copyrighted music using the Internet was considered illegal by the music industry in the United States. By early 2006, an unprecedented legal move was taken by the Music Publishers' Association (MPA), initiating legal action against tablature websites that hosted interpretations of songs and music. The MPA had been pushing for websites offering free tablatures to be shut down. MPA president Lauren Keiser said that their goal is for owners of free tablature services to face fines and even imprisonment. Several websites that offered free tablature have taken their tablature off-line until a solution or compromise is found. One of the proposed solutions is an alternative compensation system, which allows the widespread reproduction of digital copyrighted works while still paying songwriters and copyright owners. In addition, there are now a number of "legal" services offering guitar tablature that have been licensed by music publishers.

One site, MetalTabs.com, contacts the bands themselves for permission to post tablature. Few bands have declined the request.

The tablature debate was featured on NPR's Morning Edition in a segment entitled "Music Industry Goes after Guitar Tablature Websites" on August 7, 2006.

On April 10, 2010, Ultimate Guitar (UG), a Russia-based, free on-line tablature site, entered a licensing agreement with Harry Fox Agency. The agreement included rights for lyrics display, title search and tablature display with download and print capabilities. HFA’s over 44,000 represented publishers have the opportunity to opt in to the licensing arrangement with UG.