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Re:Show HN: YouTube Guitar Tab Parser by breaker-kind on Monday July 13, 2026 @05:16PM (#48899007)
counterargument -- these people are making money off of transcribing other people's parts, with no profits shared with the composers.
Re:Show HN: YouTube Guitar Tab Parser by shermantanktop on Monday July 13, 2026 @06:57PM (#48900055)
No.

In some cases, the composer makes the video, and is sharing their own work.

In other cases, the transcribed part is not a composed part, and the composer who is listed (Lennon/McCartney) did not write or perform it (e.g. Ringo's drums).

In yet other cases, the composer was long dead before the recording was made, and the melody being transcribed is meaningfully different than the one they composed. Common in jazz.

"Composer" is a 19th century idea, enshrined in copyright law in the 1920's in order to protect the people who made sheet music for piano players to play in their parlor. Musical expression deserves attribution and protection, but let's not pretend the name on the liner notes is a Beethoven with a long quill creating a work of genius out of their solo effort.

Re:Show HN: YouTube Guitar Tab Parser by Diogenesian on Monday July 13, 2026 @05:17PM (#48899015)
That's a bad counterargument. Transcribing is transformative. Copying a video into a PDF is not.
Re:Show HN: YouTube Guitar Tab Parser by almostjazz on Monday July 13, 2026 @05:28PM (#48899160)
I'm not a lawyer but based on some googling it seems like the overwhelming consensus is that selling transcribed sheet music or tabs if you do not have permission from the copyright holder of the song is illegal.

https://www.thatgreatcomposer.com/blog/is-it-legal-to-transc...

https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/96352/dual-question-...

https://www.drumforum.org/threads/what-is-the-legal-basis-fo...

Re:Show HN: YouTube Guitar Tab Parser by akramachamarei on Monday July 13, 2026 @05:40PM (#48899286)
As an occasional amateur music transcriber I'd say the goal of transcription is not transformation. If I'm transforming, I've failed :)

Inevitably the transcriber makes decisions in how to deviate from the reference recording, be it omission of instruments, microchanges in tempo and pitch or articulation. In theory a good transcription is an exact graphical representation of the abstract sonic intent of the artist.

Of course, if you are combining voices, changing chords, it approaches an arrangement which is a more creative endeavor.

Re:Show HN: YouTube Guitar Tab Parser by dahart on Monday July 13, 2026 @07:54PM (#48900546)
> Transcribing is transformative.

Not under US Copyright Law, it isn’t. Transcribing is derivative, not transformative.

BTW, if it was transformative, it’d be fair use and legal, and you’d be contradicting yourself.