Re: Ashokan Farewell Tabs anyone?
Yeah, you know, I get that. I really do. All the guy wanted to do is play a song. But unfortunately he was pointed to a resource that had a free distribution copy that in my opinion shouldn’t exist. The number of people who think that tune is public domain is mind boggling. Likewise the number of people who know it’s copyrighted but just don’t care. In my opinion it doesn’t belong in our archives. Here is a quote from the tab archive of our beloved Cafe’.
“The music provided here is mostly in the public domain. We attempt to avoid free versions of music that might be in publication for sale by an artist or a company representing an artist.”
This to me shows without a doubt that the owner of our site is aware of the issue and he does his best to avoid legal problems. But this statement does not constitute a guarantee that everything in the archive is legally distributed. That burden is on the user.
My purpose was not to hijack a thread from someone who “just wants to play a song”. Or to get on some soapbox, even if it may seem that way. I just can’t for the life of me figure out why so many people think they can pick and choose what laws they will abide by and which ones they won’t. You would think musicians would be especially sensitive about intellectual property issues. If a foreign county steals our intellectual property, that’s awful, let’s punish them with tariffs. But there’s a copyrighted song that I want, so I’ll just get it for free off an online tab library, and that’s ok, right? Because, after all, it’s just music, it’s really pretty, and I want it. So that justifies it. But the OP did the right thing and paid for the authorized version. Would it break any one of you to just pay Mel Bay 9.95 like your supposed to?
It doesn’t appear like I’m changing any attitudes here, and nobody on the other side of this has presented me with any good arguments that cause me to change mine either. So we’re just wasting time I guess. Don, out, and I really mean it this time.
Don
2016 Weber Custom Bitterroot F
2011 Weber Bitterroot A
1974 Martin Style A
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