A View on the Internet and Copyright Infringement

The internet is a vast wasteland of seemingly endless information, resources and data. You can procure just about anyting your heart desires. In turn, you can also post just about anything you like on a web page or blog. This simple act of using a search engine or publishing certain content on a website can however lead to illegal activity, or the release of privileged information... though I would hardly consider this the norm. These sites are usually found and taken down or removed eventually. Serious offenders can and have even received heavy fines or incarceration.
One of the largest cases of this was the Napster scandal a few years back. In short, Napster's file sharing service infringed on the copyrights of musicians by allowing their works to be transferred without the benefit of artist royalties, totally free of charge. The recording industy retaliated by filing lawsuits against Napster and eventually Napster was forced to end its days of allowing copyrighted music to be traded freely amongst it members. It was a victory for the artists and the recording industry.
The recording industry has gone too far this time. They are now attempting to shut down websites that publish guitar tabs for songs. If you don’t know what guitar tabs are, they are basically a notation that tells players where to place fingers on fret board of the guitar to play the notes in a song.
Tabs have six horizontal lines (representing the six strings of the guitar) and numbers on those lines that show where each string is fretted on the neck. Its an easy way to learn how to play a song without having to read music notes.
Anyway, music publishers in the US say the guitar tab sites illegally infringe songwriters’ copyright, and have issued “take down” orders to some of the biggest. What... the... CRAP?!?!?
I mean, I can understand shutting down P2P sites and torrents that allow illegal traffic of copyrighted songs. That is just plain piracy. But learning how to play a song for yourself? How is that illegal?
Sure the sites are publishing tablature that is a representation of how a song sounds, but its not the actual score or sheet music. I have seen these sites and I find that some of them are quite inaccurate, even if they do sound close to the original work. Either way, the actual music is not being handed out. It is merely a person’s interpretation or suggestion as to how a song is played.
So if I hear a song, and I figure out how to play it (which, after playing guitar for almost 20 years, I can do rather easily), create a tab for how I play it and then publish that tab online…. I am infringing on copyright?
What’s next? Is the NMPA/RIAA going to send jack-booted thugs to gouge out my eardrums so I can’t hear a song by an artist because I didn’t pay for it first?

Link to story on BBC site