posting guidelines

[drsoda]

Hey all,

What are the rules for posting here? I have tonnes of plans (mostly of the solid body flavor) and various ebooks acquired from various corners of the 'net, i'm keen to share but I don't want to breach any forum guidelines (especially since I am not 100% sure in some cases of the sources - yay internet). Would it be better to post it off site and link back from here?

[Kim]

Hey Jeremy,

With copyright being what it is, its probably best not to make anything your not sure about available on the open forum because that could land our mate Bob in deep shit, and because he is not an overly tall fellow, that could end in real tragedy.

Cheers

Kim

[Puff]

It's an interesting one - first and foremost I agree with Kim.
Questions. Taking a track from a CD or ..... , and using legit software to decipher and translate it to sheet music or tablature and then making it available. Has copyright been beached?
How does taking a tab and transposing it to another tuning go?
If a copy is made/pirated and marketed/distributed by a party in a country that does not recognise copyright and I purchase/download it have I breached copyright?
If I am not aware of a breach of copyright at the time of purchase/download am I in breach?

[charangohabsburg]

Good questions, Puff.

Taking a track from a CD or ..... , and using legit software to decipher and translate it to sheet music or tablature and then making it available. Has copyright been beached?

First, for simplifying things, let's call copyright and publishing rights just copyright. They are not the same but in the end they work the same way, only that publishing right holder and copyright holder of the music are not always the same person or company.

So, has copyright been breached when making available a transcription?
It depends what exactly you are doing with it.

• If you are using them it's OK.
  
• If you share it with very few family members or friends (talking of 2 or 3, not five or ten), it's still OK.
• If you share it with more than "very few" or a not do be defined number of people it's NOT OK.
  
• If you publish it in any form its NOT OK.

How does taking a tab and transposing it to another tuning go?

It's the same as making a transcription of the song itself. The only thing that matters is what you are doing with the result, not where you've got it from.

If a copy is made/pirated and marketed/distributed by a party in a country that does not recognise copyright and I purchase/download it have I breached copyright?

I am not aware of any country that doesn't recognise copyright. But certainly there are counties where copyright infringement will not be strictly prosecuted. Crossing borders with pirated material, of course is illegal and such material will be confiscated if detected. And of course, Internet servers in countries which are not very collaborative regarding copyright standards are a bit of a problem for copyright holders and authorities of the other countries.

If I am not aware of a breach of copyright at the time of purchase/download am I in breach?

This depends a lot on the country where you have your computer plugged in.
In many countries downloading copyrighted material is not illegal, only uploading (and mostly also hosting) it. (But downloading clearly illegal contents such as certain categories of porn, pamphlets that call on to violent acts etc. normally is illegal - hasn't got to do with copyright).

[matthew]

A good response markus.

Put yourself in the shoes of the originator of the material. .

If you drew up a plan and it was a source of income for you, would you like it freely distributed to all and sundry?

If you drew up a plan and released it on the internet altruistically for others to use, would you like it if it was distributed with no attribution to its source?

I often receive requests for double bass plans from unknown internetties. I refer them to the plans available for less than $20 that are available by mail.

That said, I have shared commercially available plans with friends from time to time. But I certainly wouldn't upload them to a website.

quoting the person who released the torres plans in another thread here:

"Neil has put much work in producing these plans, and at his own expense, making them available to anyone who wishes them, requiring nothing in return except maybe copy and postage expenses…sometimes not even this.

Having drawn the plans, paid for professional copying of prints, and made a trip into the city to send them out to folks who have requested them, it is sad to say that a few have neglected even to thank him for his trouble.

If you find these images useful, drop him an email and thank him for his desire to make available free patterns for this wonderful historic instrument. It may even encourage him to make a few more historic instrument plans available, free to all, in the future.
"