I really enjoy your lessons and the amazing learning environment you have created. I subscribe to the Tab feature on songs and find it very useful. However it is frustrating that it cannot be printed. I know you’ve had this question before and explained there are copyright issues but I wonder if that restriction needs to apply to everything, including your own tab? (rather than the official artist tab and score)
I also see other tab sites allow the unofficial tabs to be printed readily?
Peter, thanks firstly for opting to take a subscription to TABs. It is people like you who do go for the extra paid-for-content that help keep JustinGuitar running.
I understand where yo’re coming from but there is clarity needed here.
What you are thinking of as ‘Justin’s TAB’ is only a TAB based upon Justin’s work of transcribing the songs and laying them out in written format.
They are not his.
He does not own them and has no rights over them.
The publication rights and all copyright belongs to other people.
Other sites may host and share TAB that may or may not be official (probably the latter).
Justin has contractual relationships with publishing companies and he cannot breach contract, legally.
To do so could result in litigation.
Plus an end to those relationships, a complete public shaming and the cancelling of any existing contracts he has with publishing companies.
That would spell disaster for him professionally.
He not only has contracts to host TABs on his site but he has contracts to publish songbooks and other paid-for content.
He cannot risk any such thing.
Plus, he is a straight-up and honest man of integrity and would not even approach such action.
You are right about not official.
If the demand is there for printing tabs the team will figure something out for sure. It is going to cost more for sure. Or maybe an justin tabs app. Let see what the future brings. But what would be great is when you don’t have to open the tab in a new window. Save the new window link in the dashboard would be great.
I also am interested about the circumstances surrounding this; does this mean that if you were to do a screen dump of a TAB page entirely for your own use this would mean a breach of copyright for Justin?
No. What you do on your end is your own business and not something Justin is liable for. It’s like recording a rented movie to watch again later. It’s not the broadcaster’s fault and they can’t stop you. It’s you who is potentially breaching the rules, and if you were to share that recorded movie with others you’d be leaving yourself open to prosecution. Same with sharing screenshots of official TAB from Justin’s site I would think.
@DarrellW do you remember listening to the top 40 countdown on Sunday evenings and pressing the record button on your cassette recorder when a favourite song came on?
Good old days eh!
There’s a bit of an analogy there.
I thought that may be the case!
Oh boy do I remember those days well, trouble was those recordings were pretty much rubbish in my case, to get anything decent I had to use battery a powered radio cassette and go to the top of Clent hills where I could get decent reception (fortunately it wasn’t far away)!
Justin can’t provide a print function. But if you think outside the box a little, you could copy paste, or right-click download a jpg… or if you’re a bit techy there are other ways…
Under the tabs it is written powered by Sheet Music Direct. If you look at the page https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com it seems you can buy and print tabs from them (not Justins ones I assume).
So there should be a way. Maybe Justin could provide a way to buy single tabs with print option (pdf)?
I know you can process the screenshots, but paying for the tabs and still have the need to do such things is not an ideal solution.
I tested the site. I find the justin tabs better. A screenshot works but it doesn’t look good. You need three pages for one song. I think 20 dollars more and you can print songs. So two subscribtions. One what we have now and the other 20 dollars more in one year but with the option to print. We are also don’t know how many are using justin tabs. In my opinion it is the best when somebody is looking for tabs and chords. Also this service is about 2 years old.
I think the copy paste print options have all been disabled to make it very difficult to get a print. Snapping a screenshot and printing the photo is possible but tedious.
I have subscriptions to other sites that allow printing. Sometimes I print one of those and overwrite the chord boxes.
You have the same problem as with all the other subscription contracts nowadays. If the site is not available anymore or you cannot afford the subscription anymore, you have nothing left. Still prefer to have/own something, also if it is just a pdf.
Mmm. Interesting discussion.
I certainly respect Justins contractual obligations in providing this service.
However, hypothetically speaking, if one had a need or desire to print out the music for personal use, i would say, hypothetically, it could be easily accomplished.
Sorry all.
Much as you might wish this it isn’t going to happen … Justin won’t breach contract. He may wish to make even more available to you but can’t.
It has been discussed numerous times already.
Topic closed.
