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From First Perspective http://www.firstperspective.ca/fp_template.php?path=20060830teachers

Teaching the teachers about First Nations' culture -August 30, 2006 - by Holli Moncrieff

For years, The Manitoba Museum has been educating students about First Nations culture, so teaching the teachers was a natural progression.

In 2001, First Nations children accounted for one in four of all Manitoba children under 15-years-old. School divisions have been striving to incorporate more First Nations culture and heritage into their curriculum, which is where The Manitoba Museum comes in.

A few years ago, Winnipeg School Division #1 asked the Museum to develop Aboriginal Education Days. These Professional Development Days for teachers explain all the First Nations resources and school programs that the Museum has to offer.

Teachers are then taken on a tour of the archaeology and native ethnology labs, where they have the rare opportunity to view artifacts that aren't currently on public display.

"Our current goal is to raise awareness and respect for Aboriginal culture," explains Lila Knox, Manager of Educational and Interpretive Programs. "When the teachers meet someone like Katherine (Pettipas, Curator of the HBC Collection and Native Ethnology), who's dedicated her life to the preservation of these artifacts, they realize how important this history is."

During the lab tours, the teachers meet Pettipas, her assistant curator, Tanya Cochrane, and Curator of Archaeology Kevin Brownlee. Each curator delivers a short, animated presentation about their area of specialty.

"Several school divisions have made a commitment to Aboriginal education, but all teachers should be incorporating respect for all cultures into their curriculum," says Knox, herself a former teacher. "In order to respect a culture, you have to learn about it."

Brownlee, a Cree from Norway House, is committed to ending stereotypes that have been perpetuated against First Nations people in the educational system.

"I hate the term 'nomadic', because it implies that First Nations people were just moving around aimlessly, with no purpose, when they were actually tracking the migration patterns of the bison, fish, and caribou they relied on for food," he says. "It's the same with the word 'primitive'. Early native people were not primitive-they were highly sophisticated hunters, farmers, and miners, long before the point of European first contact."

During an Aboriginal Education Day held recently with teachers from Earl Grey School, Brownlee explained the high level of skill that went into making early First Nations cooking vessels, arrowheads, and the atlatl, a remarkable spear thrower than can reach distances of over 100 metres.

"If each teacher takes even a small bit back to classroom with them, it's well worth it," says Brownlee.

The visit to the Native Ethnology lab included a presentation by Jenny Meyer, an Ojibway and long-time volunteer of The Manitoba Museum, on the intricacy of First Nations beadwork.

"We're the right people to hold these training sessions," Knox says. "We have the expertise available, we have the collections, and we have a long history of presenting Aboriginal education to school groups. This way, teachers get the information from the best source."

The incorporation of First Nations culture into the school curriculum is important for all students, Knox adds.

"Non-Aboriginal students need to grow up sensitive of the people around them, respecting other cultures and honouring them," she says. "It's a teacher's job to prepare their students for the world, and it's only natural that they are trying to serve their students in the best possible way."

From The Toronto Star  http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1156974611781
 
Taming the unfrozen North
When global warming melts the Arctic ice, look to the Inuit to adapt and survive, just as their ancestors did
Aug. 31, 2006 - RACHEL A. QITSUALIK

In a much warmer 2020, the white bear's tracks no longer grace Arctic snows. The remnants of Inuit culture stand baffled as the last sea mammals perish, as creeping legions of grass and trees surround them, as southern industries pillage what many call the "New South." Ice is but a memory, while the Northwest Passage serves as the Arctic Panama Canal of this new boom era.

The histrionic paragraph above reflects an all too popular vision of the Arctic's future, one generally held by those who have never lived in it. I, however, grew up in this place: I've lived in igluvigait (igloos) as well as in southern houses, untangled dogsled races as readily as bought bus tickets. And my mind's eye renders me in the Arctic of 14 years hence as easily as five minutes from now.

Can you feel the warm August air? It's 2020, and:

In the hills, my husband and I chuckle at the staccato noise of a raven, shortly before bird and laughter are subsumed beneath the roar of vehicles. We turn to see a trio of military helicopters flying out over Frobisher Bay.

"Is it another CASP?" my husband asks. "Or a rescue?"

I shake my head, unsure, since these days there are as many rescue missions as Canadian Arctic Safety Patrols, or CASPs. The acronym replaced the SOVOP (Sovereignty Operation) around 2012, when the federal government decided it needed a friendlier term.

I can still remember the first one — Operation Narwhal in 2004, where vehicles were hobbled by unexpected frost and the military had to call on the Inuit Rangers for help afterlosing contact with two communications specialists in the hills. Those operations improved significantly by 2010, however, just in time to address our contemporary problem: foreign shipwrecks. It's embarrassing and alarming, the way wrecks are piling up in the so-called Northwest Passage, the Arctic waters where Inuit have hunted for ages.

They still hunt out there, of course. Inuit can hunt just as easily from boats as upon the once-common sea ice. It's tricky, navigating the sludge of icebergs in a small boat, but definitely worth it. Global warming, it seems, has caused planktonic populations to rise, increasing the numbers of fish and sea mammals with easier access to Arctic coasts. I can't recall a time when the hunting culture was this strong, although bears are no longer hunted.

Warmth has made the recently stabilized bear population more dangerous, since the animals are reverting to the coastal/island hunting style of their ancestors. But their numbers are nevertheless small. The end of the bear hunt is no loss, especially in comparison to the gift of food that comes with bountiful sea mammals.

Unfortunately, for many, another variety of prospective boom is starting to resemble bust.

It's amazing to think back on all the sabre-rattling between the United States, Denmark and Canada over rights to the Northwest Passage only to have so many ships ripped apart by unanticipated icebergs. In 2018, there was a much hoopla over Canada's new U.S. friendly licensing system for foreign usage of Canadian Arctic waters, even though America had already been using the waters since 2009. The issue only came to the forefront of public awareness in 2011, when an American oil tanker was split open 300 kilometres from Gjoa Haven, ruining local fish stocks and poisoning coastlines.

Inuit made little headway when they complained that the bacterial strain used to clean up the oil was giving their children skin ulcerations. But the Canadian public at least roused itself once they saw pictures of afflicted seal pups.

The result was the licensing system introduced two years ago, along with heavy costs in CASP operations to make sure no illegal dumping, immigration, speculation or fishing occurs. Add to that the cost of rescue efforts to foreign ships. .

The Land (as Inuit call the Arctic), you see, has always liked to play tricks. In this case, all the profiteers were so busy expecting Arctic waters to dutifully refrain from solidifying that they forgot one thing: The pole is still far from ice-free and global warming goes on.

As ice farther north warms and breaks off, the resultant "slush" — ice chunks from the size of a baseball to that of a high-rise — floats south. Instead of the expected ice-free Northwest Passage, the Danish tankers shipping fresh water from Greenland and the U.S. tankers shipping oil have, instead, found themselves negotiating a treacherous, boreal labyrinth.

So many lives have already been ruined as a result of greed and lack of foresight. But that, too, is an old story in the Arctic.

The illusion of boom, of less permafrost and more shipping, lured hordes of southerners North over a decade ago, believing that the Arctic was destined to become prime real estate amid rushes for gold, sapphires and diamonds.

They found, instead, an Arctic that was warmer but nevertheless treeless and incapable of becoming any nation's new breadbasket; in which shipping costs left a bitter taste in the mouths of the most rapacious companies. They built homes and complexes they were already fleeing by the time 2015 rolled around — homes now occupied mostly by Inuit families.

And as they retreated to the South again, pockets empty and with bittersweet memories of a beautiful but strangely unprofitable land, they were haunted by a single, frustrating mystery: the knowledge that they could never say exactly why the Arctic hadn't been what they'd expected.

But Inuit elders could have told them. If anyone had bothered to ask, Inuit might have explained the Land to them. And you can bet the word nalunaktuq would have been uttered. Come back to the present for a bit, even the past, and we'll talk.

The root word of nalunaktuq is nalu, or "not knowing." In Inuktitut (the Inuit language), nalunaktuq loosely means "difficult to comprehend" or "unpredictable." But why should the Inuit perspective on such a thing matter? Well, besides the fact that their ever-burgeoning population makes up 86 per cent of Nunavut, Inuit have learned the harshest lessons from the Land. The best such lesson has been that of nalunaktuq, the fact that general trends serve as poor indicators of what the Arctic will actually do.

Many people believe Inuit survivability and Land-knowledge are one, but few suspect that both hinge upon an acceptance of the Land's protean nature.

Much of the popular shock over signs of warming in the Arctic stems from the assumption that, of all environments, the Arctic is traditionally the least inclined to change. This variety of pop sophism, however, is easily unmasked through even cursory examination of that era that birthed Inuit culture itself. For the truth is that Inuit are a young people, and they were shaped by previous global warming.

The planet Earth, between 800 A.D. and 1200 A.D., was a hot place. There are tales of rich apple orchards in England, and sunburns being common.

As occurs at any time, in any place, when things begin to heat up, people move around. History shows this to be one of the greatest eras of tribal migration and rise of empire.

Inuit first emerged out of Alaska, around the time of the warm period's onset. The warmth had given sea mammals ready access to Canada's Arctic Archipelago, and Inuit culture had adapted to specialize in hunting — basically eating their way eastward via innovations such as improved boats.

They did so well that, by 1,000 A.D. (the time of Leif Ericsson's discovery of "Vinland"), they were across Canada. By 1200 A.D., they were settled into Greenland, just in time for the planet to fall into its chilly phase once again.

Nevertheless, folklore — that subconscious history of a culture — never forgets. To this day, Inuit ajaraaq (string games) retain the string figure called Kigiaq. This is "The Beaver," an animal that once ranged as far as the Arctic, during the Earth's last warming period.

As heretical as it sounds within the context of pop dogma, the last time the planet grew hotter, it was actually good for Inuit. This is because Inuit are the embodiment of adaptability itself, and other peoples who direct eyes toward the Arctic would do well to emulate such elasticity.

Lately, we've become inundated with sweeping, nigh-hysterical publications along the lines of "Global warming will render 95 per cent of Arctic species extinct within 10 years," or "Climate change will destroy Inuit culture within a decade." We humans instinctively love a crusade; but a crusade is past-oriented, while adaptation is future-oriented.

We cannot trust crisis, since someone always profits from fear. Nor can we trust prediction, until the day science can provide us with an accurate five-day forecast. But we can trust in our heritage as an ancient species, and an adaptive one. We can trust in our own ability to change, if the Land will not.

The truth is that the Arctic is warming — but I fear more for how the South will react to it than I do for Inuit.

The common southern perception seems to be that global warming will reshape the North into the South, as though the Arctic were defined, up to this point, by cold alone. Many businesses view the Arctic as a new fruit ripe for the picking, counting on global warming as the friend who will give them a boost in reaching out for it.

But ask anyone who has lived in the Arctic for a time and they will tell you that its islands and shores are strewn with the bleached remnants of such ambition: shipping costs that mounted beyond control, inconstant yield, disastrous turns of weather. Who can count the number of disappointed ventures?

Inevitably, the next couple of decades promise the illusion of boom for the Arctic, perhaps, in some greed-maddened brains, the mistaken belief that a warmer North is about to sprout trees and spawn its own little Toronto. It simply won't happen, because even with the eventual melting of permafrost, the Arctic is poor in topsoil and gravel, twin requirements for the agriculture and construction necessary to sustain large populations.

Some might resort to the argument that population is a non-factor, and that fleets of international ships will directly connect North to South. But the attempt to do this very thing is what, I believe, will lay the groundwork for tragedy. My greatest fear is that shipping interests, driven by blind speculation, will brave the stew of icebergs resulting from inconstant freezing only to spill their ice-gutted bellies into Arctic waters as they fail.

How long, I wonder, will Arctic communities have to suffer such disasters before those companies finally pull out?

Inuit, until that day, will have to be patient and adapt. Inevitably, they'll watch it all, endure it as usual and feed the latest sea mammals, which will also use the Northwest Passage, to their children. Just like their ancestors did the last time the planet warmed.

And they will adapt, even as they whisper a prayer over the skeletons of those who refused to do the same. For Inuit have never owned the Land, having learned of old that it is no man's resource.

From CBC online at http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2006/08/31/suicide-study.html

Aboriginal study to examine youth suicide on reserves
August 31, 2006

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs launched a new study this week aimed at solving one of the biggest crises in the province's First Nations, youth suicide.

The assembly is working with the University of Manitoba's Centre for Aboriginal Health Research on the three-year project. It has also secured the expertise of Chris Lalonde, a psychology professor and a top international expert on aboriginal youth suicide from the University of Victoria.

Organizers announced details of the study on Tuesday at the Traditional Youth Gathering, the AMC's annual youth conference, near the Peguis First Nation on Fisher Bay.

Amanda Meawasige, the AMC's youth suicide prevention co-ordinator, said the study will be unique in that aboriginal people will be talking to aboriginal people.

"Suicide is such a very taboo issue, it's something we didn't want to be phoning around about," Meawasige said.

"We wanted to go in person, offer tobacco, do ceremonies if it's necessary, to actually begin asking these questions. We wanted to take a … culturally rooted attempt at it."

According to the AMC, young people on reserves kill themselves at rates five to seven times higher than other young people, but not all reserves suffer from high suicide rates, Meawasige said.

So the study will find out what those places are doing right.

"We can respond to our own crisis situation in ways that we know have worked for us," she said.

Meawasige said cultural activities, such as drumming and traditional craftwork, have also been known to help address youth suicide.

But Tanita Spence, 16, from Sandy Bay, said parents must set a good example for their children.

"The alcohol and drugs with their parents, and they're the ones [who] say, 'Oh, you guys are the future,' " she said. "And they don't even take care of us."

Tanita first tried to hang herself from a tree when she was 12 years old. "I just felt so empty, I guess. I felt unloved," she said.

AFN Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement Conference for Frontline Workers

REGISTRATION REQUESTED BY SEPTEMBER 6!

WHEN: Sept. 11-13, 2006

WHERE: Sheraton Wall Centre, 1088 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC

Click on the links below for more information.

• Poster/General Information
• Registration Form
• Draft Agenda 

Message from the AFN Residential School program coordinator:

The Assembly of First Nations – Indian Residential Schools Unit is requesting the assistance of your Tribal Council to distribute the enclosed information to your respective contacts. We also request confirmation of those community representatives in your area who will attend and participate in this conference.

We realize this is short notice and want to insure that your tribal area has the opportunity to participate. Please ensure participants who plan to attend are registered as soon as possible. Thanking you in advance for your assistance.

Charlene Belleau
Manager, AFN - Indian Residential Schools Unit

For more information, please visit our website at: www.afn.ca/residentialschools

The Treaty #3 education team is hosting a letter writing campaign to voice concerns about INAC cuts to Special Education funding for students attending provincial schools.

Go to their web site at http://www.treaty3.ca/education-crisis/ to sign the postcard that will be sent online to Roger Valley's office.

From the web site ...

ISSUE

INAC has made severe cuts to the moderate to high cost special education funding for students attending provincial schools in order to cover a $3.2 million deficit in their budget. These cuts are effective immediately and will impact students in the 2006-07 school year.

First Nations submitted applications to INAC in June for the profound and moderate special needs students. These applications were reviewed by INAC in a process which did not involve the First Nations.

IMPACT

Most First Nations have suffered 30-75% cuts. In the Treaty #3 territory, these cuts amount to $1.3 million dollars. This results in the loss of support services for many students attending provincial schools. First Nations have not received enough funding to provide the one-on-one support to students which INAC has determined do not meet the criteria for high cost support, even though these students do meet the criteria of the Ministry of Education.

INAC will not disclose which students are to receive support and which are not. First Nations were simply given an allocation and told to work with it.

Students with moderate to severe issues will be impacted the most. This means that there will be a higher ratio of students to Education Assistants, no Education Assistants for students who are not considered a priority, and possibly no Education Assistants for students who may pose a threat to themselves or others.

If these supports are not in place for students who may pose a threat, the principals of the schools can prevent those students from entering the school, based on the Ontario Safe Schools Act.

What you can do ...

Voice your concern for our children by emailing the postcard to Roger Valley by filling out the form on the Treaty #3 web site, or click the postcard graphic (on the web site) to download a printable version you can sign and mail or fax.

If you choose to download the postcard, Roger Valley's Mailing address and fax number is listed below.

Roger Valley, MP
101 Duke Street
Dryden, Ontario P8N1G4
Fax: 1-807-223-8655

Anishnabe and Metis women are working cooperatively to honour murdered and missing Aboriginal women by hosting an empowerment workshop and a march in September...

Co-organiser Agnes Esquega says the purpose of the workshop is to raise awareness about missing and murdered Aboriginal women and to provide young women especially those moving to Thunder Bay from the northern reserves with the information that they need to protect themselves... The workshop takes place on September 6th at Action for Neighbourhood Changes at 500 Simpson Street in Thunder Bay... The workshop is open to ages 14 and older... A march will follow... For more information call Agnes Esquega at (807) 475-0847 or Sharon Johnson at (807) 622-8429

Equay-wuk (Women's Group) has developed their latest resource, "A Guide for Professional Caregivers:  Self-Advocation for First Nations Clients" and is hosting a workshop on Cultural Awareness and Self-Advocation Training in September 2006.

The Menonakachihewaywin Natamakewin (Better Caregiving Project) is a cultural awareness and sensitivity project, intended for non-aboriginal front-line caregivers employed to provide care for Anishnaabe clients from remote First Nation communities in Northwestern Ontario.

Workshop:  "Cultural Awareness and Self-Advocation Training Workshop"

Sunset Inn, Sioux Lookout, Ontario

September 19-21

Facilitator:  Bill Constant

Major components of the workshop include:

• Priming for cultural competence
• Understanding the historical Anishinaabe worldview

For more information, contact:

Darlene A. or Felicia Waboose
Equay-wuk (Women's Group)
Tel: (807) 737-2214 or toll free: (800) 261-8294
Fax: (807) 737-2699
email: equaywuk@nwconx.net

Workshop Information available on website: www.equaywuk.ca

Considering the historical, social and economic impacts of having young people leave their homes and communities to attend high school, it is unfortunate that local community-based high school programs are funded at such a lower rate.

From CTV.ca online at http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060827/residential_school_060827/20060827/

Modern residential school uses native culture as a lure - Aug. 27 2006 - Canadian Press

WINNIPEG -- High school principal Don Revel is busy these days gearing up for the start of another academic year, and for the roller-coaster of challenges, struggles and excitement his students will ride in the first few weeks.

All of the 170 students who will attend Southeast Collegiate next month are preparing to leave their First Nations reserves across Manitoba for the boarding school and a chance at a high school education most can't get at home because there are no schools near their reserves.

While aboriginal students from across Canada often must travel to go to an off-reserve public school that offers classes beyond Grade 8 or 9, Southeast Collegiate offers a uniquely aboriginal experience because it is owned and operated by the Southeast Tribal Council.

Revel says the school's attention to native culture, history, language, and counselling -- as well as academics -- is keeping students from dropping out while preparing many for college or university.

At a time when native residential schools are in the headlines for past physical and sexual abuse and a proposed federal compensation agreement, Revel says Southeast Collegiate symbolizes a new, positive era in aboriginal education.

"We are a modern-day residential school, and our philosophy has always been 'doing it right,"' Revel says from behind his desk hidden under mountains of papers and files.

"I don't think there's any doubt the old residential school system was an attempt to assimilate First Nations people to white culture.

"Here, it's very much more of an honouring of culture and understanding how our students can develop the skill sets to either function within First Nations culture at home, or in society as multicultural as it is in Winnipeg."

Enrolment at the school has been expanding rapidly since its doors opened 11 years ago.

When Revel joined the staff seven years ago, the school had about 80 students and a retention rate that hovered around 50 per cent.

Now, the school turns away between 50 and 75 students a year.

Revel believes Southeast has succeeded where public schools have failed because staff directly address some of the main reasons why students return to their reserves without graduating.

"We provide a home," says Revel.

"We tell staff when they are hired they're going to be parents to kids who are 200 to 700 miles away from home and who are going to suffer loneliness and need somebody to identify with."

Pauingassi First Nation, a fly-in community about 300 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, will send its entire Grade 10 class of nine students to Southeast Collegiate.

The community has long struggled with solvent and alcohol abuse, with one in five of the 450 residents considered a chronic solvent addict.

Social worker Eric Kennedy says the students are counting the days until they leave home, while their parents are relieved they'll know where they are and who is caring for them.

Last year in Manitoba, 1,249 students left their reserves for high school -- with 740 of those coming Winnipeg, says a spokesman for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

Those who don't go to a boarding school are part of the department's private home-placement program. The students choose the public school they want to attend and find their own accommodation, which is covered by the department.

But after seeing many children drop out within weeks when left on their own to find a school in Winnipeg, Kennedy says he hopes the Grade 10 class heading to Southeast will become an example for the younger kids still at home, proving there is a way to continue their education away from solvents.

Kennedy says the emphasis on native culture is the key to keeping the kids in class.

"When I walk through the doors it brings back that I'm proud of who I am, being native, and I think that's what's so unique," says Kennedy.

"They're going to be interested in finding out about their heritage."

The school is considered a provincially funded private school, although Revel says he doesn't have any students that meet the criteria for provincial funding.

Instead, the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs pays $11,000 per student annually for tuition, as well as $13,000 in room, board and trips to and from the students' home reserves.

Revel says that while Southeast Collegiate couldn't be more different than the once-mandatory residential schools some of the students' parents and grandparents attended, their sometimes painful memories are hard to erase.

"Some families are very apprehensive and some don't want to be supportive of the system, because even though it's run by a First Nations organization, there's still a belief they're trying to change their youth to a white culture," he says.

For others, it's the chance for their kids to live and learn in an environment far better than what they have at home that allows them to embrace the school.

"Housing becomes a serious issue for a lot of people," says Chief Terry Nelson of the Roseau River First Nation, about 75 kilometres south of Winnipeg.

"So if somebody wants to concentrate on their education and really get through it, they could choose a residential system where they don't have to live with five or six siblings in a crowded house."

Guitarists have been exchanging tips on how to play songs on a number of online guitar tablature sites. These are sites where amateur musicians trade “tabs” — music notation especially for guitar — for songs they have figured out or have copied from music books. The sites include Olga.net, GuitarTabs.com and MyGuitarTabs.com as well as discussion boards on the Google Groups service like alt.guitar.tab and rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature. Music publishers like Sony/ATV and EMI lose money if people obtain the music from such sites rather than purchasing commercially produced sheet music or books of guitar tablature, as do the artists who hold copyrights to their music. "Music Publishers’ Association and the National Music Publishers’ Association have shut down several Web sites, or have pressured them to remove all of their tabs, but users have quickly migrated to other sites. According to comScore Media Metrix, an Internet statistics service, Ultimate-Guitar.com had 1.4 million visitors in July, twice the number from a year earlier." BOB TEDESCHI, The New York Times, August 21, 2006, (free registration required). The article illustrates the potential of the World Wide Web and Internet to promote cultural exchages, and the power of the medium and some implications for its impact on commerce in cultural materials.  

From New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/technology/21ecom.html?ex=1156392000&en=619d14efa02e7c66&ei=5087%0A

Now the Music Industry Wants Guitarists to Stop Sharing

By BOB TEDESCHI, August 21, 2006

The Internet put the music industry and many of its listeners at odds thanks to the popularity of services like Napster and Grokster. Now the industry is squaring off against a surprising new opponent: musicians.

Lauren Keiser, president of the Music Publishers' Association, says guitar tablature Web sites reduce the earnings of songwriters.

In the last few months, trade groups representing music publishers have used the threat of copyright lawsuits to shut down guitar tablature sites, where users exchange tips on how to play songs like "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "Highway to Hell" and thousands of others.

The battle shares many similarities with the war between Napster and the music recording industry, but this time it involves free sites like Olga.net, GuitarTabs.com and MyGuitarTabs.com and even discussion boards on the Google Groups service like alt.guitar.tab and rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature, where amateur musicians trade "tabs" music notation especially for guitar for songs they have figured out or have copied from music books.

On the other side are music publishers like Sony/ATV, which holds the rights to the songs of John Mayer, and EMI, which publishes Christina Aguilera's music.

"People can get it for free on the Internet, and it's hurting the songwriters," said Lauren Keiser, who is president of the Music Publishers' Association and chief executive of Carl Fischer, a music publisher in New York.

So far, the Music Publishers' Association and the National Music Publishers' Association have shut down several Web sites, or have pressured them to remove all of their tabs, but users have quickly migrated to other sites. According to comScore Media Metrix, an Internet statistics service, Ultimate-Guitar.com had 1.4 million visitors in July, twice the number from a year earlier.

The publishers, who share royalties with composers each time customers buy sheet music or books of guitar tablature, maintain that tablature postings, even inaccurate ones, are protected by copyright laws because the postings represent "derivative works" related to the original compositions, to use the industry jargon.

The publishers told the sites that if they did not remove the tablatures, they could face legal action or their Internet service providers would be pressured to shut down their sites. All of the sites have taken down their tabs voluntarily, but grudgingly.

The tablature sites argue that they are merely conduits for an online discussion about guitar techniques, and that their services help the industry.

"The publishers can't dispute the fact that the popularity of playing guitar has exploded because of sites like mine," said Robert Balch, the publisher of Guitar Tab Universe (guitartabs.cc), in Los Angeles. "And any person that buys a guitar book during their lifetime, that money goes to the publishers."

Mr. Balch, who took down guitar tabs from his site in late July at the behest of the music publishers, added that, "I'd think the music publishers would be happy to have sites that get people interested in becoming one of their customers."

Cathal Woods, who manages Olga.net, one of the pioneer free tablature sites, said he had run the site for 14 years with the help of a systems administrator, "and we've never taken a penny." Mr. Woods, who teaches philosophy at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, said Olga.net had earned an undisclosed amount of money by posting ads on Google's behalf, but he said that money had paid for bandwidth and a legal defense fund.

Anthony DeGidio, a lawyer for Olga.net, said he was still formulating a legal strategy, while also helping decide whether the site could pay licensing fees "in the event that that's required." For now, though, the site remains unavailable to users.

Because the music tablature sites are privately held, they do not disclose sales figures, and because industry analysts generally do not closely follow tablature sites, it is unclear how much revenue they generate. But with the Internet advertising market surging, almost any Web site with significant traffic can generate revenue.

Google also dabbles in tablature through its Google Groups discussion board service, in which guitar players trade tabs they have figured out by listening to the songs, or by copying tabs found elsewhere. A Google spokesman, Steve Langdon, said Google would take down music tablature from its Groups service if publishers claimed the materials violated copyright agreements and if Google determined that infringement was likely. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Web hosts may review, case by case, a publisher's claims regarding instances of copyright infringement.

To hear music publishers tell it, though, the tablature sites are getting away with mass theft. Mr. Keiser, of the Music Publishers' Association, said that before these sites started operating in the early '90s, the most popular printed tablatures typically sold 25,000 copies in a year. Now the most popular sell 5,000 copies at most.

But Mike Happoldt, who was a member of the '90's band Sublime and whose music is sold in sheet music books, said he sympathized with the tablature sites.

"I think this is greed on the publishers' parts," said Mr. Happoldt, who played guitar on Sublime's hit "What I Got."

"I guess in a way I might be losing money from these sites, but as a musician I look at it more as a service," said Mr. Happoldt, who now owns an independent record company, Skunk Records.

"And really, those books just don't sell that much for most people." 

Assuming a tablature site musters the legal resources to challenge the publishers in court, some legal scholars say they believe publishers may have difficulty arguing their complaints successfully. Jonathan Zittrain, the professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford University, said "it isn't at all clear" that the publishers' claim would succeed because no court doctrine has been written on guitar tablature.

Mr. Zittrain said the tablature sites could well have a free speech defense. But because the Supreme Court, in a 2003 case involving the extension of copyright terms, declined to determine when overenforcement or interpretation of copyright might raise a free speech problem, the success of that argument was questionable. "It's possible, though, that this is one reason why guitar tabs generated by people would be found to fit fair use," Mr. Zittrain said, "or would be found not to be a derivative work to begin with."

Doug Osborn, an executive vice president with Ultimate-Guitar.com said his site violated no laws because its headquarters were in Russia, and the site's practices complied with Russian laws.

Jacqueline C. Charlesworth, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Music Publishers' Association, would not comment on the legality of specific sites, including Ultimate- Guitar, but she said she had seen no international licensing agreements that might make free United States distribution of guitar tablature legal.

Online discussion boards have been thick with comments from guitar tablature fans, looking for sites that are still operating and lamenting the fate of sites they frequented. One user of the guitarnoise.com forums, who calls himself "the dali lima," said he had no doubt that the music publishers would win the battle.

"Hopefully we will get to a place where the sheet music/tab will be available online just like music $0.99 a song. The ironic thing might be that a service like that with fully licensed music/tab offered at a low per song rate might actually benefit guitar players by providing the correct music/tab and not the garbage that we currently sift through."

A small handful of sheet music sites now sell guitar tablature. Mr. Keiser, of the Music Publishers' Association, estimated that, including overhead costs, tablature could cost about $800 per song to produce, license and format for downloading.

Musicnotes, an online sheet music business based in Madison, Wis., is considering a deeper push into guitar tablature, said Tim Reiland, the company's chairman and chief financial officer. The site has a limited array of tablature available now for about $5 a song, and it also offers tablature as part of $10 downloadable guitar lessons.

But Mr. Reiland said that with the music publishers "dealing with the free sites," and a stronger ad market, his business might be able to lower the cost of its guitar tabs.

"Maybe we could sell some of the riffs to Jimmy Page's solo in 'Stairway to Heaven' for a buck, since that's really what the kids want to learn anyway," Mr. Reiland said.

Low prices are only part of the battle, though, Mr. Reiland said. The free tablature sites often host vibrant communities of musicians, who rate each other's tablature and trade ideas and commentary, and Musicnotes would have to find a way to replicate that environment on its site. Furthermore, these communities often create tablature for songs that have little or no commercial value, he said.

"Less than 25 percent of the music out there ends up in sheet music because sometimes it just doesn't pay to do it," Mr. Reiland said. "So the fact that someone comes up with a transcription themselves just because they love that song and want to share it with people, there's some value to that."

"I don't have an answer for that," Mr. Reiland added. "But I think the industry needs to play around with it, because it could be a nice source of revenue for songwriters, and for the community it could be a really good thing.

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