BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Song sites face legal crackdown
The music industry is to extend its copyright war by taking legal action against websites offering unlicensed song scores and lyrics.

The Music Publishers’ Association (MPA), which represents US sheet music companies, will launch its first campaign against such sites in 2006.

MPA president Lauren Keiser said he wanted site owners to be jailed. He said unlicensed guitar tabs and song scores were widely available on the internet but were ‘completely illegal’.

Mr Keiser said he did not just want to shut websites and impose fines, saying if authorities can ‘throw in some jail time I think we’ll be a little more effective’.

Oh my, here we go again. Next they will prosecute anyone whistling a popular tune in public, since it could be considered an unlicensed performance. Hey you, isn’t that the melody of ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles you are humming. Pay up now or go to jail. Maybe listening devices could be installed everywhere – like security cameras – and computers could scan for melodies and alert the cops…