If the Harry Fox Agency (HFA) has their way, you'll never find the words to your favorite song on the net. Ditto for the chords that some guy wrote out for that song, when he posted it to Usenet 3 years ago. Some guys put all of these files in one place, called it OLGA (On Line Guitar Archive), and set up mirrors of it all around the world. HFA has been going around for the past few months issuing cease and desist letters to the operators of these mirrors, and now is after the mother site herself. If this pisses you off, be sure to check out the Blue Treble Clef Campaign.
For what it's worth though, the OLGA guys got it all wrong. They are still thinking like Material Entities instead of the Virtual Entities. By going legit, they only strengthen HFA's suit against them. The thing to do is hit the underground.
Warez do0dz trade every kind of software imaginable, all without ever revealing their identities to each other, and without getting caught by the man. They use dead drops, proxies, IP spoofing and a dozen other tricks to keep themselves covert on the net. They setup intricate server relays to keep from being traced.
Guitar tab is a kind of software too, albeit very specialized and generally not machine-readable. If the OLGA guys would have just bailed on legitimacy, they could have kept the archive open. As it stands now, there will be no updates to the archive, and the central repository has been closed. Several rogue sites in the US, as well as many overseas sites are still open, but without updates that doesn't help get the chords for the new Fastball song, does it?
Even if you aren't a musician, you should take time to familiarize yourself with this problem, and register your protest with HFA. The reason is simple (if not downright cliché): Today, they are coming for guitar tabs written by ear and uploaded by private citizens. What if they come after something you care about next? How about Star Trek fan-fiction? Okay, what about game and sports card information? Star Wars parodies? The Black Panther Coloring Book? Martha Stewart jokes? Software source code? See what I mean? Eventually, everything of value on the net will be worthless because of people like HFA.
In a paraphrase of a famous quote (net.famous anyway) by John Gilmore, Jon Katz said, "The net interprets a request for payment as damage and routes around it." Freely available information that isn't free will not be accessed. And frankly, in this age when bits are everywhere, the content of software (music, code, movies, whatever) is going to become less and less relevant. It's the brand that matters. Why do you think the Information Please almanac is starting to tentatively distribute its stock in trade (i.e. raw & interpreted data about the world) for free via the net? Because if they get you hooked on the brand, then they can profit from your use of their information in other ways.
Even hackers know this. Ever heard of the l0pht? If you punch deck for a living, you probably have, as they are well known "computer security experts" (read: hackers). They have turned a lame utility or two, plus a good brand, into success of sorts in the security world.
So, in the final analysis, my advice, OLGA dudes, is to pick a pseudonym you like, and head for the digital hideout. There are plenty of enterprising young hackers that would love to be a part of keeping OLGA alive despite the best efforts of HFA, a large law firm, and the entire United States Federal Government.
The Blue Treble Clef Campaign is a good start for your branding strategy. Ride it until it's on the lips of every schoolgirl in America. Then it won't matter what the HFA, the government, or anyone else wants or doesn't want. You'll be heroes, villains, martyrs, and gods all at the same time. Isn't that what you wanted when you started playing rock and roll in the first place?
Rickwood Out
(With aplogies to Brock Meeks)