OLGA, a venerable and very popular guitar tablature archive, received “take down” notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Guitar tab archives are such a gray area for working musicians. For up-and-comers on a budget, guitar tabs are a simple, free way to learn songs. However, sheet music is a traditional way that songwriters have earned money — even at a few cents per copy.
While OLGA was essentially a non-commercial effort, I imagine that the message is loud and clear for the hordes of commercial sites offering guitar tabs — pay a royalty or get sued.
Like song lyrics on the web, this is a very sticky situation that only artists can solve. I don’t ever think that there will be a blanket agreement over what you can and cannot legally do with guitar tabs and song lyrics online — the community is too divided.
What do you think should happen, and what are you, as an artist, ready to do about it?