Free the Lyrics

According to the Wikipedia entry for mxtabs.net, the tab site has once again closed shop. On June 25, 2006 the tabs were taken down. Then on July 18, 2006 the index page at mxtabs.net simply displayed an open letter describing the situation. It starts off:

7 years ago, Mxtabs was started as a hobby by an aspiring drummer attempting to learn his favorite songs. Over the years, the tab site blossomed into a valuable resource for thousands of musicians. We’ve enjoyed hearing the success stories of thousands of guitar, bass, and drum players who have increased their skills and grown through their use of this website.

Unfortunately, it is now time to close the doors of Mxtabs.

“U.S. digital entertainment company Gracenote on Thursday said it obtained licenses to distribute lyrics as music publishers mulled legal action against Web sites that provide them without authorization.”

read more | digg story

Even though Gracenote has a deal to distribute lyrics with digital music, the article doesn’t get into too many details about what they’re going to do about the unauthorized lyrics sites out there. About the only insight they give is “Peer said he hopes the unauthorized sites will seek licenses.” Or else what?