The most ridiculous thing ever

[Dumb Snowman]

So, ever walked into a musical instrument store, and hear someone play that annoying Stairway to heaven song? Well, now you can't. It's illegal. Yep. It's illegal to play music in public This isn't just for venues, or bars, or anything. I mean that if I were to go outside my house and play a buddy guy tune on my guitar, I could be fined.

The PRS (No idea what it stands for atm) has decided to argue that people being able to hear music for free will prevent their sales. WHAT THE FUCK!? So basically, if you want to test a guitar out before you buy it, you better be damned sure you know how to play your own songs!

On, and the MPA (again, no idea what that means) has decided that tabs, which are what tell you how to play music, are illegal too, unless you buy them from the companies themselves. Now, this wouldn't be so outrageous if THEY ACTUALLY MADE TABS. Seriously, there are probably less than 1,000 tablature books in print. And if you look at them, they are almost all extremely inaccurate.

So outrageous. I don't understand how they can do this. And apparrently it's not one of those stupid laws that aren't enforced. The PRS called up a music store in the UK and told him if he didn't start paying Isomething like 140 punds a month to them, they're gonne be closed down. And almost all of the major tab websites have been shut down (Mxtabs, powertabs, taboramma, etc.).

I know we have a few lawyers here, have you guys heard about this? Do you know the judge who listened to the case? Do you know what he was on? Do you know how I can get some?

Sigh.

[JDLush]

Tabs have always been illegal if not licensed, that's why many of them have the "to be used only for study purposes' disclaimer. I used to get all of mine thru guitarplaying.com, but I haven't been there in a while to see if they are still available.

If you'll notice, a lot of the guitar magazines will have stuff like "Here's a lick that Randy Rhoads might have played" and it's the riff to Crazy Train dead on. As long as they don't say, "here's the crazy train riff" they don't have to pay licensing on it.

If the artists themselves were getting paid for it directly I wouldn't mind, but most of the stuff is owned by ascap or some other bucket of leeches.

[Juskimo]

Hmm very odd. The tabs I'm not too suprised by, as it is pretty basic intelectual property.

The public playing of music is very odd. Once you have legally purchased something, you have the right to play it. That is part of what you are buying. When you buy a CD it has two parts. 1) the actual CD and 2) the private licensing right to play the music on that CD for your own personal use. Just like the warning at the beginning of movies.

My guess would be that they are trying to say that playing music in a store is not a private use, but a commercial use designed to promote the store. As such they probably want people to pay the same amount as radio stations, etc to use the music commercially.

For example, if I invite some friends over to watch a movie, that is a private use. If I start Juskimo's Theatre, in the same place, with the same friends, but charge them each $5, that is no longer a private use, but a commercial use and thus violates the terms between me and whomever I purchased the rights to view said movie from.

-Jus

[iceman5]

[Dumb Snowman]

[stickdude]

[Dumb Snowman]

I doubt it

[Zuccala]

Enforcing this will be a bitch!

[MVPSPORTS]

I dont play music... But if I walk into a store and am lookin to buy a 2k guitar, and the salesguy gets commission, I'll be playin Stairway to Heaven, Pink Floyd, and that 90 minute long Doors song back to back... I GUARANTEE it...

[Dumb Snowman]

Good for you MVP. I'm gonna go to a couple music stores on friday and blare every Rage Against the Machine song I can remember. Too bad I can't get a tab for the ones I can't remember

[rdale]

[Dumb Snowman]

Here's the one I have bookmarked. http://www.macclesfield-express.co.uk/n ... iddle.html

In this one the PRS is just telling the guy that he has to pay them royalties just in case anyone desides to play copyrighted music in his store.

[Dumb Snowman]

[MVPSPORTS]

For as great as Southpark ALWAYS is, there was an especially funny episode a while back when the boys got arrested for downloading a song off the internet... The Secret Service took them on a tour of why it's so horrible, stuff like that Brittney Spears couldn't buy the 20 passenger plane, and had to settle for the measley 10 seater... It was friggin CLASSIC!!!!!!!

Basically, all the millionaires bitchin about how dimes are bein taken off their table can all get together and take turns suckin on my big fat hairy left nut...

[Dumb Snowman]

Yar. I don't understand this. It's not even like we're "taking dimes of the table". They're inventing dimes that never existed and demanding them.