NEW YORK, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. music publishers are threatening to shut down guitar tablature Web sites where users get song guitar chords free and exchange tips.
The associations have pressured several sites to take down tablature, or instrumental notation, although copyright laws are unclear, the New York Times reported Monday.
Publishers claim the postings are "derivative works" and free sharing hurts composers. But tablature sites say their services help the guitar industry, which has boomed in recent years.
There was a time when popular songs sold 25,000 copies of sheet music per year but now few sell 5,000, said Lauren Keiser of the Music Publishers' Association in New York. Tablature sites are privately held, so their sales revenues are not publicly known.
But former Sublime guitarist and Skunk Records founder Mike Happoldt said musicians don't make much money from sheet music anyway.
"I think this is greed on the publishers' parts," Happoldt said.
