Net/Music "Fair Use" Issue - OnLine Guitar Archive Needs Help!

Greetings!

The On-Line Guitar Archive <http://www.olga.net/> is a loosely organized group of guitar enthusiasts who are brought together by their common interest in sharing knowledge of guitar music. Our Archive is made up of several thousand songs, written in "tab" format ("tablature" or guitar notation). Our "tabs" are created by people on the internet who post their tabs to USENET groups. We not currently organized but we aim to apply for nonprofit status. We have gotten into squabbles in the past with EMI Publishing USA, and more recently with the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA). Recently, many of our mirror sites have been taken off-line due to contact from the Harry Fox Agency, which is associated with NMPA. On April 3, 1998, the mirror at Harvey Mudd College was taken off-line as a result of HFA contact. More recently, our Carnegie-Mellon mirror was also taken down.

As a result of this threat, I have organized the OLGA Legal Advisory Committee (OLGA-LAC). The primary reasons for doing so are (1) to organize opposition to the Harry Fox Agency, or any other organization who would attempt to shut down OLGA; (2) to write up an official statement concerning the legality of OLGA, citing relevant copyright statute and case law; (3) to incorporate OLGA as a nonprofit organization; (4) to handle other legal affairs as they may arise.

OLGA Legal Advisory Committee really needs all the help we can get, so if anyone would like to volunteer some time or expertise, it would be most appreciated. Basically what I'm looking for is some people like yourself who can participate in an intellectual property-related policy discussion, and maybe help out with nonprofit incorporation at some point. This is a cutting edge cyber-law issue! If you have any experience in this area, we need your help!

Thank you,

chris

-- 
Chris Synan
synan[_at_]olga.net
http://www.olga.net/legal/
On-Line Guitar Archive - Legal Advisory Committee (OLGA-LAC)