Music industry takes another step towards pure evil

Kidder

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5305520.stm

The music industry has set its sights on "taking down" tablature websites now. I reckon lyrics sites are next...

thoughts and opinions?

Rym

Way back, before your fancy new-fangled mp3s, we collected and traded MIDI files. Even back then, and even with this primitive form, the industry shut down anyone they could catch.

MIDI files and tabs are essentially the same thing. A MIDI file isn't a music file per se, but a score made into computer-readable form. It's really just computer sheet music. It doesn't sample anything from the original song, and there's no reasonable way one could expect it to sound like the original.

Now, I would understand perfectly if the RIAA went after people who were distributing copies of the artists' scores, as these are often for sale. My problem is that they are going after not their own work, but descriptions of their work made by other people.

Tabs and MIDI files are typically created manually by listening to a song and transcribing it. It's a very difficult thing to do, requiring skill, talent, and physical ability. (I studied the art for years, and I'm barely passable at it). What you create is no more than your own description of the song. It's just a set of facts, observations, and guesses that you personally made.

It's as if someone sold red wooden cubes as art. They're allowed to do that. Now, suppose I buy one, cut it in half, and then say what I've seen. "It's pine painted red and cut into 1.25" cubes." According to the RIAA, doing just that should be illegal.