Music industry to take on lyric sites



In another move that will frustrate millions… The recording industry is set to take on sites that provide lyrics (or scores) of licensed songs. I know I’ve searched for song lyrics many times because I couldn’t make out what the words were by listening to the song (and the label was too cheap to give lyrics in the packaging (or the type was small enough to require a scanning electron microscope…)) Anyway guitar tab sites are under the microscope as well. Don’t expect just fines and a site takedown either…..


They’re looking for jailtime for this heinous offences…. (The MPA (Music Publishers Association) is the primary thrust here..) They’ve already gone after software that helps users locate song lyrics.

So does that make it illegal for me to hear a song on the radio and copy down the words for someone else? I play piano too… does playing a song by ear with more than myself in the room constitute infringement? Used to (not that long ago), the only real problems would be for an eating establishment if a band or solo act played a copyright song and the location didn’t pay for licensing… I’m waiting for the day when purchasing a musical instrument becomes more expensive because you have to also purchase a yearly licensing package to be able to play copyrighted music on it. (Unless you plan to only play public domain stuff… and you know with good monitoring chips and a network connection that new digital piano might be able to monitor that for us…)

I really need to find an eyeroll emoticon…

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