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

Chris:

I'm not a lawyer, and the followin isn't legal advice, but you still might find it helpful in clarifying in your own mind the issues you have raised:

As I understand the law, you are not allowed to post the words or music to copyrighted songs on the web. Guitar intabulations which incorporate the entire copyrighted melody would also probably be forbidden as unlicensed derivative works.

It might be a fair use (If I were Lord High Copyright Judge, it would be) for your user group the pass tablatures privately back and forth by email, using the public site or bulletin board only to establish contact. But you should consult a lawyer.

It might be a fair use if your web site posts not intabulations of whole songs, but only tablatures for How to Finger that Hard Few Bars. Again, consult counsel.

If you post just chord progressions based on three-chord theory, you might be in the clear. Your lawyer may be able to leverage the recent ruling of Woods v. Bourne into a ruling that three-chord guitar harmonizations are uncopyrightable. Certainly that's what the law ought to be, to my mind.

But I repeat: The Harry Fox Agency is a powerful opponent. If you mean to fight them, you MUST get a lawyer. Maybe someone else in this forum can recommend an experienced copyright lawyer in your area.

Tim Phillips
<phillips[_at_]mail.nhn.ou.edu> Received on Thu Apr 30 1998 - 22:22:53 GMT