Digital Home Thoughts: RIAA Goes After Lyric and Tab Sites

"The litigious music industry will have a new target in 2006: sites that provide lyrics and scores to popular songs. The Music Publishers' Association says fines and the removal of such Web sites is not enough -- it is even advocating jail time for those operating these sites. MPA President Lauren Keiser told the BBC Monday that he thought if the MPA would be successful in "[throwing] in some jail time I think we'll be a little more effective". He says the guitar tabs that have been commonplace on music sites for years are "completely illegal." The effort marks the first time the MPA would embark on a legal effort to protect the copyrights of its members. Individual companies have used the courts to protect their rights in the past."

This news is a few weeks old, but I just had to post on it, because it pushes my buttons. As a musician who has used both types of sites many times in the past, I would sincerely mourn the loss of this type of content on the Web. I cringe at the thought of trying to get lyrics from the Flash-based "wizzy-woo!" sites that most band now have. And when I was first starting out playing bass, those tab sites were like manna from heaven - very useful to learn songs from. This makes me sick - is there no online freedom of information anymore?