[rbVmVlQ2]

Downloading copyrighted recordings via "file sharing" utilities or whatever is clear theft in my book. Playing copyrighted songs is more of a gray area. I believe you are only required to make compensation to the artist if you are making money from it yourself, but I'm not an intellectual property lawyer. So if you perform a song for your friends, that's fine. But as soon as you perform it in public for money, you need to pay somebody. Which is why bars and other performance venues have these automatic deals set up where you pay ASCAP or whoever some fees. Recently we ran an Irish dancing competition and had to argue with the venue not to charge us those fees because all the songs were in the public domain.

I guess having sites with tabs and lyrics would be some sort of copyright issue but that seems like a gray area to me. If I figure out the chords to some song and play them for my own use, I can't see how anyone would object. If someone else figures them out for me and gives them to me for free, that seems OK too. I think it's a copyright issue if they are distributing copies of the actual transcripts sold to the public.

That's the way my guitar teacher handles it. He works out of a shop that sells sheet music - they are OK with him transcribing for students, but not photocopying copyrighted material.