This domain supports the On-Line Guitar Archive in its defense against attacks by the National Music Publisher's Association. This archive, also known as OLGA, provides contributer-donated TAB and chord transcriptions of popular songs for use by amateur guitarists across the Internet. The archive has recently come under legal attack by music publishers who claim that the site is illegally posting copyrighted material.
My take on the matter is that as long as all rights of the legal owners are respected, at least to the point where a fan makes a good faith effort to demonstrate said respect, then no violation of the law is taking place. Proper respect for the rights of the owners can be as simple as distributing only partial copies of a work, or copies of inferior quality. Certainly works that are intended for a single, limited use, such as Tab transcriptions of songs for the use of amateur performers, demonstrate that those posting these Tab files are interested only in sharing knowledge and helping people learn music, not threatening the value of a copyrighted work.
In addition, fan advertising and promotion can be far cheaper than any other form of advertising. For instance, the Patty Smyth Web Site provides information about albums produced by MCA and Columbia Records, and songs published by EMI Music Publishing. This site also provides direct advertising for the sale of records and merchandise. (In the form of free links, although we do not begrudge a non-profit organization the right to use banners to finance its service) We have no wish to violate the copyright on any of Patty's works, and have posted disclaimers on each of the pages where material is used without permission, for the sole purpose of informing the public.
While the owners of a copyright certainly have the right to control the distribution of their product, as long as the fan community is obviously attempting to be responsible in its distribution, charging no money and showing respect for the rights of the copyright owners, then we would expect such use to be regarded as "fair use", even if that use is not purely informational in nature. Certainly in the absence of any contact with the owners, particularly if such contact is requested but not returned, we would expect to be allowed fair use of the material.
In addition, while it may be argued that the commertial value of the content is reduced by its free accessibility, the advertising and good will provided by the fan community should offset any loss of value. More importantly, if the commertial interests are willing to work with private fan or hobbyist organizations, instead of seeing them as a threat, then they will be able to recoup their losses, whether through licensing, or simply due to the increased traffic brought in to their own Web Sites.
On the other hand, many commertial interests have taken a threatening stance against the fan community. This posture not only threatens the fan base of the product, but it also casts the commertial interest in a bad light. In addition, it is not the corporations' place to judge the fan community. While a corporation has every right to contact a Web Site and request, or even demand that material be removed, is against the spirit AND the letter of the law for them to act as judge, jury and exectioner, shutting down a Web Site or harassing it to destruction with complex and expensive legal manuevering.
While independent Web publishers such as myself may not have the resources of large record companies and publicity agencies, we devote a great deal of our time and hard work to creating sites like this one. The owners of copyrighted material have a great deal to gain from this service, and can benefit from it in many ways. Thus, while the recording industry may have the power and money to enforce its restrictions and further the commertialization of the Internet, I do not feel that such action would be best for either myself or the industry. There is room here for both business interests and the free exchange of ideas.
For further information, see the Home Recording Rights Coalition whom I believe has the most balanced position on this matter. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is specifically interested in protecting the rights of Internet publishers, but at times I do not agree with their position. For the other side of the argument, see the NMPA Web Site. Previously I had a link to a site called the International Lyrics Server, which supposedly had reached a deal with the NMPA, but tellingly it is now gone.
The results of these legal actions may have repercussions
which effect this domain, and the Internet at large. We will be keeping a
close eye on this situation, and will put as much support behind the
defense of OLGA as we can provide.