(and it must be pretty darn important, I never talk in CAPS)
I recently discovered that GuitarTutee (http://www.guitartutee.com/) has stolen some of my tabs from here and put them on their website. Their website has a disclaimer
"The lyrics posted in this website are properties of respective artists. Everything else, if you shall allow us to say so, is ORIGINAL. GT ORIGINAL."
This is not true! If they've stolen mine, I'm sure they've stolen other peoples' too. The difference is - I noticed. And I tried to do something about it. I e-mailed them a couple weeks ago with a list of the tabs I thought (knew) were stolen. They were identical to mine, copied and pasted directly from here. I could tell because some of them had typos I hadn't fixed. I told them they were stolen and gave them the links to mine, and asked them for proper credit, just a link to my tab at the top of theirs.
I never received an e-mail back. Today, I went to the same tabs and they've been EDITED. All GuitarTutee did was move the chords out of the tabs, and place them at the top so it would look different. They also changed some of the chord names. (IE: Cadd9 to C9) They are still based off of my tabs!
The thing is, I only noticed that some of my Taylor Swift tabs were stolen, so those were the only ones they changed. I went looking around today and found two of my Kate Voegele tabs had also been stolen. So these have not yet been edited, and I can prove it.
Is there anything I can do about this? I tried to be nice about it but now I'm just really pissed. I'd sue their a**es if I thought I could. (but I guess that's going a little too far, huh?) The thing is, I think it really is illegal, because on this page: http://www.guitartutee.com/leave-your-request/ they give you the option to "donate" to get your tab added faster. Someone is literally "buying" a tab, and if GuitarTutee adds a stolen tab, they're profiting from our hard work. I'm pretty sure that's illegal...
If there's nothing I can really do, can you guys at least help me spread the word? We'll give 'em a bad name!
And if anyone's interested, here are the tabs they stole from me: (that I know of)
I've noticed this; sometimes I go on guitartutee.com as well!
And I've searched up Taylor Swift chords, and they exactly like yours!
That's just...wrong!
I don't know what kind of advice to give you, but I can say that what they are doing are most/likely to be illegal. Dunno what else to say though.
If i was you i would keep e-mailing the person that stole your tab till they took it off the site then after that tell them right where to go and how to get there plus that's bull that they are making people pay for a tab and it isn't even their tab its yours. Maybe if you get a lot of people to go to that site and leave comments saying that they stole it and stuff like that maybe they will take your tabs off the site?
Thanks for the comments guys. I still don't know what to do. I'm so pissed, I've e-mailed them several times with no response, I TRIED to post comments saying the tabs were stolen, but the comments are checked before they're added to the site, so obviously someone made sure mine didn't go through. And to xoxTinaxo - I didn't say people were paying for stolen tabs, I said it was definitely possible. You never know when someone is going to pay for a "rushed" tab and it could come from another website like UG =\
But sites like 911 Tabs are more of an "index" page for guitar tabs online, and they don't alter the tabs to remove the credit like Guitar Tutee did...
Hey Krista. I think that is totally out of order. So I've left a comment on all the tabs he's claimed his & is really yours (I suggest you get alot of people to). If that don't work & he doesn't change it.. Start commenting on his youtube video, channel & pm him (thats what ima do ina min - I didn't really like him anyways :L). & Then if that still dont work I vote court. Cos that is illegal. & I think that you should message someone who works for UG to make UG tabs uncopyable (like you cant highlight it.. cos noone will bother to type it out i dont think). Anyways, good luck to you.
Hi, I can empathise with you alright this is annoying - there are few things you should know though. This is not uncommon it happens all over the web today with UG. I'm pretty sure that other sites probably pay UG to get a hold of some of the tabs uploaded on their site because there is just no feasible way (time wise) to copy and paste so many tabs onto other sites. As far as I'm aware some of the tabs go up straight away on other sites; they are either under some contract with UG to do so or are a parent site of UG. Of course it is worth noting that the situation you are explaining more than likely is happening but not on such a drastic scale because as I've said it's just really not practical on a time basis. I have found many of my tabs on other sites also just to point out. The truth of the matter is you can't sue over these tabs. You don't have copyright over them, technically UG probably does if anyone, in that they provide the web template so most likely have a superior claim.
It's a difficult legal dilemma really and poses alot of questions. When tabbers put tabs online it is like a blog on a social networking site, if someone copied and pasted your very words and made money from these infamous quotes somehow could you sue them?
Of course not. We put up tabs voluntarily on this site - if someone wants to steal them and then sell them (the virtue of this act, it is worth noting is illegal but in theory not the way in which they are doing it) then so be it.
It is actually quite ironic because this site I've always thought and other tab sites border on illegality, in the way in which they provide free music tablature - in due respect I love this sites and have contributed a good bit but it does make me wonder having studied law!
The point I'm trying to make in a very convoluted manner is essentially no - you have no legal claim to the tabs: you put them up voluntarily and have no protection against this happening however annoying it may be. Hoped this helped in some way
deffinitly keep emailing them. if they don't take them off or credit u, its called plagarism. they could like go to jail for that. if they don't take them off, i'd call the cops or somethin'. good luck!!!!
that stinks!! i was about to leave a comment saying that i luvd ur taylor swift tabs, and then i found this!
take pictures of the t ab they stole and havent changed and use it as proof. and don't settle for editing!!! U r way too talented at tabbing for that!!
But hey, dont let this stop u from putting tabs up here!! I am in DESPERATE NEED of carrie underwood's new song "cowboy casanova". There's a version already up, but it isnt all correct and its hard to read. If u could take some time to figure it out, its a great song and i'd really appreciate it!!
'deffinitly keep emailing them. if they don't take them off or credit u, its called plagarism. '
Sorry what? A tab is a user's interpretation of a song, well at least how to play it.
It's more than likely a conicidence anyway (not taylor hatin' but her songs don't really vary as far as songs go).
Yeah it might suck that you feel ripped off but shit happens, and no, they cannot go to jail for copying someone's tab. I'm not doubting you here, but how do we know you wrote the tabs and that you didn't copy them and claim as your own?
This is retarded, at least they could do is give credit and ask you for your tabs to be put on their website, that's just rude and yes I'm pretty sure it's illegal! I hope you get this situation figured out.
It's more than likely a conicidence anyway (not taylor hatin' but her songs don't really vary as far as songs go).
Yeah it might suck that you feel ripped off but shit happens, and no, they cannot go to jail for copying someone's tab. I'm not doubting you here, but how do we know you wrote the tabs and that you didn't copy them and claim as your own?
It's NOT a coincidence when they have TYPOS in them that were only in MY tabs and not any other versions. What are the chances of them making the exact same mistakes? And spacing their lyrics the same way, etc.?
And I don't steal my tabs, and even suggesting such a thing is just plain RUDE. I don't care how "easy" her songs are, I still put a lot of time and effort into getting them down perfectly. And most of the time I tab her songs within the week of the CD being released, and most of the time I'm the FIRST one to submit any version of the songs... so where the heck do I steal them from?!
And I don't want them to go to jail, but credit where credit is due, right? It IS stealing, whether there could be consequences or not. Apparently they just don't know the difference between right and wrong. What happened to morals?! The nerve of some people...
And if they're making money off of stolen tabs (which they could be, I don't know for sure), that is most definitely illegal, because then they're stealing from the person who tabbed the song AND the artist, most artists have tab books you have to pay for...
| My Profile
GUYS I NEED YOUR HELP! blog
Dunno what else to say though.
