Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Music Publishers Target Musicians Sharing Techniques on Internet Guitar Tablature Web Sites

Commentary:

I know it's slightly offtopic, but I was amazed to learn that the music publishers are now targeting musicians sharing guitar techniques on the internet:

"Guitar instruction sites shut down by music industry" (The Register)

How do they think people learn to play guitar other than to share techniques with each other? What are they trying to do, kill music altogether?

-R.B.

Keywords: digital copyright online download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs

4 comments:

Alter_Fritz said...

What are they trying to do, kill music altogether?

Ray, that's exactly what those well-known and respected record companies (I love this phrase) ;-) want to do:
Kill the growing of new artists!
Because a new generation of artist could cut them out of the creator -> customer chain completely by selling their own artistic works directly to customers in the digital age.
Or those new artists could sign contracts with a record label that acts ethical. With labels that do not sue their own customers for non commercial free promotion (p2p) they are doing and Labels that do not infect the customers computers with spyware like Sony BMG has done!

Those RIAA-Dinosaur labels prefer to stay in business by trying to sell us their old catalogue over and over again with every new Generation of Devices yet to come that can play music

They simply have no incentive that new stuff will be generated that they can not control!
After all THEY™ are not those that represents the interests of the artists. They just represent the mostly obsolete copying and distributing middleman that made his living on the fruits of others!

It is therefore totally logic that they try to stop the breed of new artists! Those old Recordcompanies are smart and of course their actions don't represent a serious harm to the society, they don't endanger the cultural heritage with their copyrightlobbying and their sneaky "work for hire"-clauses that rob the artists their fruits and they of course don't do Spamigation or run amok!

eclectica said...

It shows that the propaganda of the RIAA where they claim to be out for the good of the musicians, the music, and the fans is false. If they really cared about the music and the fans they would be happy that people take an interest by having sheet music and lyrics sites. Instead their bottom line is nothing other than maximizing money, so they regard any free fan sites or sharing as a profit loss.

raybeckerman said...

This isn't the RIAA, it's the music publishers. The RIAA just owns rights in recording; these are the owners of the underlying musical compositions.

One of the things that makes the RIAA "settlements" so scary is that they don't deal with the rights of the music publishers. I.e. once you settle with the RIAA there's no guarantee these guys won't come after you too.

Unknown said...

fritz,

I love this comment! It's just the truth!
Rock on,
Jay.