As far as I can see, nobody has violated the forum rules by either POSTING links to sites that infringe copyright or requesting same. As far as I know (and I am no a legal scholar) poor taste is not a crime. Apparently neither is behaving in a condescending fashion towards one's peers.

I don't know a single musician over the age of 50 who did not own at least one copy of the original illegal Real Book. If anyone either undertook the effort to transcribe all those tunes or purchased the sheets individually) then THAT person has the right to stand on a high horse and criticize others.

I stand by my statement that Copyright laws are outmoded in a digital age. I have legally purchased (Eb and Bb versions) of the Hal Leonard 6th edition Real Books (volumes I and II) on Kindle. Kindle is a MAJOR pain in the toches to navigate on a tablet at a session or on a gig. I converted them (illegally) to .PDF format which are much easier to manipulate in a live setting. Do I feel like a criminal for that ? No I do not, I paid for the content, and not the format. Would I LOVE to have these tunes in a format that I can transpose to accommodate vocalists? Yes, and I do. I have literally every tune I own (from having purchased via the Leonard books) in BIAB format which I downloaded from various sources over the years. I have modified a few to match the Leonard versions.

I am not saying that owning charts with melodies for which I have not paid is right and legal but, again, I have never met a single musician who has not done this.

Most standards and bop tunes in the various Real Books are 50+ years in age (since the death of the composers.) Our copyright laws are such that the rights are bought and sold by speculators (like Paul McCartney) as investment vehicles rather than benefiting the heirs of the original compositions (as the law was intended.)

So yes, there are laws we break on a daily basis, which usually are "victimless." Any one here outside of Colorado ever smoked a joint?


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