OLGA
OLGA is currently offline while we resolve legal issues with the archive. We greatly appreciate your support and hope to return to providing resources to the aspiring guitarist as soon as possible.
For as long as I can remember, my main resource for finding guitar tablature has been Olga.net, The Online Guitar Archive. Now it seems they’re having legal issues and have taken the entire archive offline. I remember them having a situation like this a few years ago, and it was down for quite a while. This is a tremendous resource for guitarists, beginners and experts alike, and it really sucks to see it go down.
Also, I can’t find any news of this anywhere.
In the meantime, you can find tabs at Harmony-Central, which uses the OLGA database to find tabs that are hosted on different sites across the planet.
I just found Moonshiner.
Come back soon, OLGA. And please let us know what is going on in the meantime.
Read some of this essay about music ownership:
The songs sung by tribes in a field long ago not only belonged to everyone, their ownership was not even an issue. Just as no amount of regulations can prevent people from singing songs together in a field, no amount of regulations can prevent me from playing illegally downloaded songs on an iPod in a field, because no amount of regulation changes the nature of music. Because music is a matter of shifting consciousness and not worldly sound, a person can’t claim to own or control music any more than they can claim to own or control a quadrant of mist over a lake. And there would be no consequence to a legal or governmental admission of music’s inability to be owned or regulated other than the inevitable jump in human consciousness that is already developing from this very realization. Ironically, the same tools and technologies developed to make money from owning and distributing music are making us all aware that music is a fleeting incarnation which can’t be located or owned.
Videos, music, images, and words by 
July 25th, 2006 at 10:54 am
Haven’t used OLGA the past years, but the same thing happened to mysongbook.com which has been my main source of tabs.
Fortunately, I found that entire archive elsewhere
Too bad that this happens though.
July 28th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
The RIAA just doesn’t get it. Are they trying to kill off future guitarists before they even learn how to play? IMHO, lyrics and tab sites encourages fans to become more attached to music, and thus encourage them to buy more.
It saddens me to see this happening. What’s next? Will musicians playing covers of songs be sued? Would that be so different from suing sites over tablature?
August 4th, 2006 at 9:01 am
Every single time those fucking retards at the RIAA do stuff like this, I am MORE and MORE determined to steal as much as I can from them. The actual stealing bit is more fun than getting whatever I was after in the first place. I know its a matter of time before their game is over, but in the meantime I will be praying for their immediate demise.
And possibly the untimely deaths of their executive board.
Maybe.
August 13th, 2006 at 6:27 am
[…] Bullemhead reports that OLGA’s tab and chord database went offline again, thanks to DMCA. […]
August 13th, 2006 at 9:41 am
[…] OLGA […]
August 13th, 2006 at 10:00 am
[…] בימים האחרונים נסגר שנית. English at the end of the post. עוד לא ראיתי באף אתר חדשות מסודר התייחסות לנושא. […]
August 13th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Hello!
I linked to you and wrote a bit on the subject… It’s in Hebrew though.
Thanks!
August 13th, 2006 at 11:36 am
They aren’t trying to kill of the begining players before they learn to play. They are trying to make a fortune off those who are trying to play by leanring from other players greatness. You see, when some one makes it big, they desever all the money they can get from who ever is interested in them.
If you want the tabs and lyrics of your favorite song, you should pay to jion thier fan club and buy the official tabs and lyrics and an inflated price. Drugs and hookers don’t come cheap. neither does buying off politicians. The folks at RIAA know this and take every step possible to guarentee the income flow neccesary to maintain it. By not keeping the music industry in supply of drugs and hookers, the indevidual artist will have time ot notice they are getting screwed and we cannot have that untill the RIAA’s take over the world.
:Hint- this is all sarcasm in case someone in RIAA training doesn’t get it.
August 13th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Although the OLGA database is apparently large it is actually very small in real data terms, consisting mostly of ASCII art. I would simply compress it and hand out a few hundred copies to people with instructions to disseminate it to every P2P and torrent network in existence asap.
August 13th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
[…] Hat tip to /. and Bullemhead […]
August 13th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Please see my blog regarding this. Im not a lawyer but I think you will see by analgy that shutting down OLGA is illegal and should be taken to the supreme court.
http://dmcadoesntownearorpen.blogspot.com/
August 14th, 2006 at 2:44 am
In europe there is a big copyright restriction wave,too. We have to inform more people about that. The more people know about this issue the more pressure gets the music industry. Behind all the acronymes NMPA and the MPA (an so on) are only normal humans. Why can these people do such stupid things? I hope they will soon realize that money is not the most important thing in the world.
August 14th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
I think that OLGA rocks! Screw the music industry. They are a bunch of greety fat asses with nothing better to do but to look for things to keep them busy. This will only hurt them in the long run. There are many aspiring guitarists that don’t have the resources to learn through conventional means. These are the ones that are going to be most affected by these MPA, MNPA and whomever else. What a bunch of sh**heads!
August 16th, 2006 at 5:31 am
OLGA has been the best way for many musicians to find out new techniques since….umm…. the dawn of time(??) i would gladly like to invite the RIAA ’round mine so i might kick all of them (one by one) squarely bitwixed the buttocks in a rotory fashion.
Many thanks OLGA you beauty.
C.J Hixon esq
August 16th, 2006 at 6:32 am
This is carzy–ok people, time to fire up your filesharing software and start posting the tabs you have! Heck, share the mp3’s while you’re at it. By taking TAB sites down, this just proves, once again, the utter worthlessness of some idiotic group of overpaid pencil pushers.
August 25th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
[…] Links: 0. http://meatgavitrondotcom/ 1. http://www.olga.net/ 2. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=98/06/10/1149246&tid=95 3. http://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=26207 4. http://www.bullemhead.com/nonfiction/olga.html […]
August 26th, 2006 at 12:42 am
Here is my letter to M.P.A.
To whom it may concern,
I have read the explanation of your position on the take down of copyrighted materials on web sites like OLGA. I do understand your position and I do understand that your company tries to protect the creative interests of its clients. But there are several things wrong with what is happening right now with the take down of these web sites.
First, there are un-copyrighted songs available on these web sites. I’m sure that most of the classical section of Olga is un-copyrighted, or the copy writes are out of date. I’m sure that even some of the newer artists are the same way. For example Bach, Stravinsky, etc. These are valuable lessons for young, up and coming guitar artists. Their is something to be said for having an idol to look up to, learning how to play like them is what drives even your business. New artists are developed through educations that websites like these provide. Maybe they even go on to have their material copyrighted by M.P.A.. But not after travesties like this. We should be free to access these materials on web-sites like OLGA. Just the the same as you compared us as steeling copyrighted music at a music store, I can tell you that it’s OK to go to the library and research music and tab at a local library. you can even copy it at the library if you wish. While I know that this is not the material that you are concentrated on, you are shutting down access to this type of music as well.
Second their are valuable tools for guitar players besides the songs theme selves on websites like OLGA. Chord charts are very important for building basic fundamentals for playing guitar. Riffs for blues and rock are very common and are taught to guitar student world wide. I know that the focus of the “Take Down” is not on these materials, but you are shutting down access to these types of free and general information at the same time. There are valuable lessons to amateur students trying to learn guitar that have nothing to do with copyrighted material.
Third, there are artists that don’t even care about having their music interpreted and taught through tablature for learning purposes. You can’t say that you know for a fact that every artists that has tab on OLGA feels that they have been creatively violated!
I am one of those people that would not take music books from a music store without paying, nor would I take copyrighted material from a website with the knowledge that the material is copyrighted. I didn’t understand that using these materials for personal use was a crime, especially when they are interpretations. I’ve never printed material out, I have only used the material for quick lessons and for strictly personal use. I just want someone to understand that it’s not OK to take something away that they have nothing to do with, or they don’t even care about.
I would be curious as to just how many copy writes of yours were infringed upon on OLGA. Are there numbers like that out there? Is it just one artist that feels strongly about taking down websites as harmless as Olga? Maybe I’m off base. I’m not a lawyer but I do understand greediness. As far as keeping interpretations of music off the Internet; GOOD LUCK! I’m sure that many people share my opinion that companies like M.P.A., that will demolish a website that has good intentions to save their clients a buck or two are corporate vultures and indignant folks in general. The mentality of the corporate “Lars Ulrich” types don’t understand something as simple as “We the people that use OLGA don’t give a care about ripping off their music, we just want to learn”
All the best,
West Moody
October 1st, 2006 at 12:38 am
I use to never buy CDs until OLGA. I would learn how to play something I liked and then bought the CD to really fine tune it. From now on if there is something I like I will find it on some server in Africa and download just the song I like. No more buying a CD with 8 crappy songs again.
December 10th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Ive used many of the sites that the NMPA, and MPA are taking on. I find this whole situation sad, tiresome, and stupid. What can one guitarist do? Should be more like what can 7 million of us do.
OLGA was the first ever site i found, the first time i thought about looking up tabs online. I loved the excerpt from The Essay above. How can some one loose their high on music, buy having some lame lawyer in a blue suit come in toss papers at him. I hope that the NMPA and the MPA come too their senses before the world of music is diced to shreds. I’m disgruntled. Guitarist of the World Unite.
February 16th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
[…] בשבועות האחרונים נסגר שנית. English at the end of the post. עוד לא ראיתי באף אתר חדשות מסודר התייחסות לנושא. […]
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:35 pm
A bit late in the discussion perhaps - but
1. I agree with all you guys on every single point (quite a feat!
)
2. Great letter to the MPA, Moody! (run it through a spell-checker though ;-))
Guitarist of the World: Unite indeed!
June 4th, 2007 at 9:24 am
My take on the whole tablature issue is this: it’s like arresting someone for plagiarism for using a speech they went to for reference, even after they gave full credit to the speaker.
It’s not as if people are trying to take credit for this music, they saying “This is what I think it sounds like” giving full credit to the orginators of the song.
It saddens me that a trivial civil suit is raised against OLGA and they are forced to shut down until things are resolved while muderers and rapists can stay in their own home if bail is set and met. It’s almost as if the people maintaining OLGA have been determined to be guilty and they need to prove their innocense. That’s not how our judicial system is supposed to work.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Im a song writer and composer mostly for recreational fun. I literally found out about this just 5 min ago, and was deeply saddened by it. Guitar players everywhere that im in close communication with used olga.net to play the songs they love because they love to play not for profit or for fame, just the love of playing this instrument. what I don’t get is that we who post such tabs, and those hosting it have to suffer from such political and legal, all because of the so called copyright infringement. I also read another article on the matter where it said that the NMPA and MPA stated the there trying to protect not only their clients but to the creation of new music. and that by having guitar players learn tabs is bogging down music creativity,and new pieces of art which I find to be absolutely absurd.(more or less in those words) who are they to call themselves protectors of creativity. if they where so concerned that there werent any good music out there they should be providing the correct tabs for guitar players to learn!
and one more rant if you fine musicians dont mind. I did a little research on this too. When a musicians submits his song to be copyrighted they submit an audio version
and sheet music. not tabs. I believe that therefor tabs are completely legal, because no one copyrights them. maybe they do to some, Ive heard profesional musicians say look up songs u wana learn on tab sites. a good educational resource to learn from. anyway thankyou all.
and to the creator of olga.net thank you for creating a wonderful site that so many have benefited from for so many years in the search for knowledge and inspiration. thank you sir, and to all the musicians who posted tabs and such other helpful articles and knowledge about such a great instrument. I wonder if maybe if u turned it into a site where we as the surfers donate to keep the site running, if that would bypass any laws, I understand that its risky as there are those who cant or just wont donate, but I believe there are enough out there to help keep the site running if it where possible. and thanks again.
Sincerely
M.A.B.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
August 11th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
This post goes out to all the artists out there in happy land. Knowing and confident that a tune that you created is safe in the hands of a group of people that are looking out for your best interest. I am sure that the lawyers working for MPA are soaking it to you at a fair fee. The songs you create are not yours .. they are ours and if you want to keep them .. don’t publish or write or sing .. because once you utter the words, whistle the tune, document your creative essence, It is ours .. and it will always be ours .. That is the way it works .. and if you don’t like it. QUIT..