# What finally happened with the legality of online guitar tab sites? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-happened-with-the-legality-of-online-guitar-tab-sites/598750 "2011-10-06T03:03:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-happened-with-the-legality-of-online-guitar-tab-sites/598750/1 "2011-10-06T03:03:04Z")
I remember back in the late 90s the tab scene was exploding online, with the biggest tab site being Harmony Central. Then, around the time Napster came under fire, tab sites started getting shut down and sued. Harmony Central pretty much died and then for a few years it became hard to find newly tabbed songs. That shutdown only lasted a few years and now there are tons of massive websites with huge tab repositories. Many of the songs completely reconstructed in Guitar Pro or Pro Tab. What’s the story here? What changed that allowed the tab sites to flourish again? I think the same thing goes for lyrics websites though I don’t use those so I can’t be sure. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-happened-with-the-legality-of-online-guitar-tab-sites/598750/2 "2011-10-06T03:51:51Z")
There do seem to be a number of big tab websites that seem to be able to stay afloat, and I’m not sure why - I’ve also seen plenty of high quality smaller tab sites, youtube channels providing tutorials/covers, etc. shut down due to threats from copyright holders - frankly I save a local copy of anything I come across that I’d miss if it disappeared because I’ve seen it happen many times. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-happened-with-the-legality-of-online-guitar-tab-sites/598750/3 "2011-10-06T11:07:57Z")
I was wondering the same thing, especially since, just for the heck of it I was checking out how [OLGA](http://www.olga.net/) is doing these days. OLGA was actually one of the first websites (no, not just TAB websites, I mean _websites_) that I became aware of (ca. 1995). So, since they’re still down and displaying a legal take-down letter, the real question is: what’s going on with OLGA? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-happened-with-the-legality-of-online-guitar-tab-sites/598750/4 "2011-10-06T12:41:35Z")
I think YouTube happened. There’s barely a song you can’t download a lesson for on YouTube. Kids don’t want to futz around with tab … they just want to play the songs. P.S. - I still use Tabit occasionally, and their site is still active, I’m just not sure how much new stuff gets uploaded these days. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-happened-with-the-legality-of-online-guitar-tab-sites/598750/5 "2011-10-06T12:49:34Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I think YouTube happened. > > There’s barely a song you can’t download a lesson for on YouTube. Kids don’t want to futz around with tab … they just want to play the songs. That’s been my experience when I have wanted to learn a song. \*\*Cubsfan \*\*- what sites have expanded their tab selections these days? I’d be interested in checking them out… ---
**Author:** ![theR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@theR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theR)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-happened-with-the-legality-of-online-guitar-tab-sites/598750/6 "2011-10-06T12:49:36Z")
> [@zombywoof](#): > > There do seem to be a number of big tab websites that seem to be able to stay afloat, and I’m not sure why - I’ve also seen plenty of high quality smaller tab sites, youtube channels providing tutorials/covers, etc. shut down due to threats from copyright holders - frankly I save a local copy of anything I come across that I’d miss if it disappeared because I’ve seen it happen many times. I haven’t looked in a long while but I thought the big ones still online were hosted outside the USA, which makes it harder to get them taken down depending on the country doing the hosting. ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-finally-happened-with-the-legality-of-online-guitar-tab-sites/598750/7 "2011-10-06T14:06:42Z")
Most of the sites have entered into special arrangements to split advertising revenue with the artists/music publishers. [Example](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2007/04/legal-guitar-tabs-return-to-the-web.ars)