Out Of The Loop

apparently. after a long hiatus from my already half-assed music endeavours (the half assedness particularly refers to the guitar in general and in this case), i decided i wanted to get some tabs for some decembrists songs.... eli the barrowboy in particular and possibly, we both go down together. anyway, its irrelevant WHAT songs i was looking for, what is important is the fact that apparently i am out of the loop because theres been some sort of controversy as to whether posting guitar tabs online is legal or not. what is the deal with that? i mean arguments against stealing MP3s, i totally understand, but putting the chords up? what is wrong with that? its not illegal to play someone else's music... its not like you could pass it off as your own... and its not like youre taking something physically from the band and making money off it, i dunno. i dont know the details on this business, but apparently i cannot get tabs at this juncture. however, nikolai was SHOCKED at the fact that i dont learn music by ear, a skill i was never very keen on developing... perhaps the time is now. i dont know very many guitar chords though.... ive thought of two approaches for attempting to learn these songs by ear.... 1) i could figure out the melody on teh guitar to figure out what key its in and then fit the appropriate chords to it.... 2) i could figure out the chords on teh piano and then learn them on guitar.... either way, i find myself wondering just HOW MUCH i want to learn these songs. lazy, i know. i think my real problem is that i have this huge upwelling of creativity and inspiration right now, and since im still waiting to recieve my paints, im jsut trying to get it out. hmmmmmmmmmmmm