On Piracy by Chuck Sher

Musicians - beware. There are CD-ROMs being sold on the internet with scanned versions of the old "Real Book" and also Sher Music Co.'s The New Real Book series. ALL these CD-ROMs are completely illegal. Sher Music Co. had nothing to do with them and neither should you. Here's why.

Sher Music Co. remains what it was when it started 24 years ago---a small business by musicians, for musicians. Putting together a legal, accurate, high-quality fake book (such as The New Real Books) takes us about two years of intense effort and expense: countless hours of finding and listening to records to discover the best tunes to include, then tracking down the publishers, doing all the business negotiations, meticulously transcribing the tunes, and re-working each chart until it is the most complete and useful version of the tune possible. Then we painstakingly copy them, proofread them, and road-test them with our musician friends at jam sessions and rehearsals. We often consult with the composers to get any feedback they might have, then revise them, re-copy them, paste them up in book form, and proofread them over and over until they are perfect. And that doesn't include the effort and cost of creating esthetically-pleasing book covers, promoting the books once they are out, and the daily hassles and expenses of running a business. There are blood, sweat and tears on every page. (And great joy too, of course. We love what we do!)

If you produce, copy or buy a pirated version of our books, you are stealing the fruits of years of effort that went into creating them.You are also stealing money from your favorite jazz artists. Every six months we faithfully send fair royalty payments to all the publishers and composers of the tunes in our books. By buying these pirated copies (or the old, illegal "Real Book"), you are stealing from Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Richie Beirach, McCoy Tyner and hundreds of other less-well-known composers who count on these royalties to pay their bills. You wouldn't walk into their living rooms and take their stereos, even if you knew you could get away with it, right? Well, these illegal CDs are just as much an act of theft as any street crime. And in the worst-case scenario, these bootleg CDs could put us out of business and then there would be no more New Real Books.

How can you tell if a book is ripping off the composers' right to benefit from their creations? Just look at the bottom of each tune. If no copyright notices are there, then the book is illegal, plain and simple. Again, Sher Music Co. has never authorized a CD version of any of our books---they are all illegal. And let me publicly thank the musicians who have alerted us to where these bootleg CDs are being sold. We greatly appreciate your loyalty.

Piracy of musicians' recorded efforts are, of course, even more widespread on the internet. But here too, you have a legal, moral alternative. For about $10 a month, you can be a subscriber to a new online music service, Rhapsody, where you will be able to listen to thousands of CDs at the push of a button. Rhapsody, of course, pays royalties for every use of every tune, eliminating the moral dilemma of using Napster and its clones. Another great idea! (See www.listen.com for details.)

These are perilous times on our beautiful planet. The forces of greed and indifference to human suffering are increasingly powerful, and the only countervailing force is the basic goodness inherent in each of us. So I would encourage you to exercise your better nature: work for a more just and peaceful world, be kind in all your dealings with people, and use your purchasing power to support honest, life-affirming products, like The New Real Books and Rhapsody. You'll feel better.

Chuck Sher is a jazz bassist, author of several bass instruction books and the owner of Sher Music Co., publisher of high-quality jazz and Latin music books (www.shermusic.com).