Here's where this gets fun, Pat.

Eddie calls Pat and says "Hey I have a gig in 3 weeks and need a guitar player. I am going to send you a CD of the stuff we will need to learn. Nothing major. It's a themed "British Invasion" party we will be playing. Some Beatles, some Stones, some Herman's Hermits, some Freddy and the Dreamers, a couple by the Moody Blues, Peter and Gordon..."

By the letter of the law as you described it, I would be breaking the law by sending you a CD with the 40 songs we need to learn for the gig.

Now that brings up the question... HOW do I get the music to you? By the letter of the law, am I required to go out and buy you a copy of Meet The Beatles, Help, Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper..... and then Sticky Fingers, Get Your Ya Ya's Out.... buy a copy of every CD from which songs are plucked?

If that is the case, every cover band in the USA is guilty because songs get passed around for learning purposes many times every day.

Now, let's go one further because I like to get ridiculous and look at every possible scenario.

What if the show is all MY music? Would the players I recruit have to buy my CD to learn it and play it?

I always used the analogy of books in a library. Once I read The Stand, I gave it to someone else to read. A second person got to enjoy the book and Stephen King didn't get another penny from it. The library gives books and music away for use every day. Patrons get to enjoy the art, and then return it when they are done, possibly having copied the CD while they had it.

DMCA is a wide broom.... and now SOPA wants to do things like charge a fee if you have a sound byte on your WEB PAGE???

Great topic full of gray areas. This is now outside the scope of what PG policy is in the forum. We all understand that they want only original music here. This has now moved to "what if"....

I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.