In 1996, UNLV was contacted by EMI Publishing, who alleged copyright breach. UNLV kicked OLGA off its server, but no threat was ever made against OLGA, so we went wandering around looking for a new home.
In 1998 OLGA was threatened by HFA, who, like EMI before them, refused to say exactly which songs they were claiming ownership of and to provide ANY information about licensing, and gave us seven days to close the entire archive. OLGA closed the old archive.
So it seems the question has not been legally resolved. You do see the standard header on most tab:
#-----------------------------PLEASE NOTE-------------------------------------# #This OLGA file is the author’s own work and represents their interpretation # #of the song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or # #research. Remember to view this file in Courier, or some other monospaced # #font. See http://www.olga.net/faq/ for more information. # #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------#
…as scholarship is covered under copyright law
Most TAB attempts to transcribe the whole song. If it is a small snippet in a scholarly journal, that’s a different thing. But wholesale copying is generally a no no. And lots of publishers *sell *TAB books now. So by publishing TAB, a TAB writer is taking away some of the market for the publisher’s books. Of course, much of the TAB on these websites is inaccurate, which could cut either way . . .