The Music Publishers Association of the United States (MPA) is a non-profit music publishing organization based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Founded in 1895, the MPA is the oldest music trade organization in the United States which addresses issues pertaining to print publishing with an emphasis on copyright education and advocacy.

Tab and lyric sites

Websites that offer lyrics and guitar tabs without licensing or permission from the artist or record label constitute

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

. Former MPA president

Lauren Keiser Lauren may be a given name or surname.The name's meaning may be "laurel tree", "sweet of honor", or "wisdom". It is derived from the French name Laurence, a feminine version of Laurent, which is in turn derived from the Roman surname Laurentius. ...

stated that he wanted jail time in addition to fines and the removal of offending websites. In March 2006, the MPA issued a statement in which they explained their position on websites that distribute unauthorized sheet music and tablature. Several points are made in the statement: *MPA members invest a significant amount into arranging, engraving, editing, marketing, and distributing sheet music products, and illegal tablature cuts into their sales. *Sharing the tabs is bad enough, but even worse is when sites make money off the illegal tabs. *Guitar tabs do not circumvent copyright laws just because they're claimed to be personal interpretations. *Viewing illegal tabs is equivalent to stealing sheet music from a local music store. *The MPA is not targeting authorized websites, and will work with sites that want to build a legitimate business.

Criticism

The MPA's position on

tablature Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...

has been criticized by the tabbing community. The community do not believe they are infringing

copyright laws A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

because they are only displaying their

aural Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds through an organ, such as an ear, by detecting vibrations as periodic changes in the pressure of a surrounding medium. The academic field concerned with hearing is audito ...

transcriptions of these songs, which are, more often than not, not entirely correct. They feel that the practice of tabbing and sharing songs has existed for decades without any issues. An article on the now-closed guitartabs.cc website said:

"At what point does describing how one plays a song on guitar become an issue of copyright infringment? This website nd tablatures among other things, helps users teach each other how they play guitar parts for many different songs. This is the way music teachers have behaved since the first music was ever created. The difference here is that the information is shared by way of a new technology: the Internet ..."Guitar instruction websites shut down by music industry , OUT-LAW.COM
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In April 2008
the Power Tab Archive
a popular guitar tablature site based around the

Power Tab Editor Power Tab Editor is a free tablature authoring tool created by Brad Larsen for Windows. It is used to create guitar, bass and ukulele tablature scores, among many others. The current version uses the *.ptb file format. The Power Tab Editor is a ...

program, was urged to properly license work by the MPA. In April 2009, the Power Tab Archive organized a partnership with

Music Sales Group Wise Music Group is a global music publisher, with headquarters in Berners Street, London. In February 2020, Wise Music Group changed its name from The Music Sales Group. In 2014 Wise Music Group (as The Music Sales Group) acquired French cla ...

and the website is continuing to reload the downloads and pays royalties with advertising revenue.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Music organizations based in the United States Sheet music publishing companies Arts organizations established in 1895 1895 establishments in New York City Non-profit organizations based in New York City Publishing-related professional associations