C3POh
Oct 20, 2007, 06:09 PM
The site http://imslp.org has received a letter Cease and Desist Universal Editions which has closed down (temporally) the site.
The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is a project for the creation of a virtual library of public domain music scores, based on the wiki principle. Since its launch on February 16, 2006, more than 15000 scores, for 9000 works, by over 1000 composers (as of October 2007) were uploaded, making it one of the largest public domain music score collections on the web.[1] The project uses the popular MediaWiki software.
As of October 19, 2007, the IMSLP has closed due to legal threats[18] from Universal Edition of Vienna, Austria. The cease and desist is concerning some works that are in public domain in the server's location in Canada with copyright protection of 50 years post mortem, but are protected by the 70 years post mortem term in some other countries. The administrator of the website decided to close down the complete site until further notice:
"On Saturday October 13, 2007, I received a second Cease and Desist letter from Universal Edition. At first I thought this letter would be similar in content to the first Cease and Desist letter I received in August. However, after lengthy discussions with very knowledgeable lawyers and supporters, I became painfully aware of the fact that I, a normal college student, has neither the energy nor the money necessary to deal with this issue in any other way than to agree with the cease and desist, and take down the entire site. I cannot apologize enough to all IMSLP contributors, who have done so much for IMSLP in the last two years." from the project leader of IMSLP, Feldmahler.
There are ongoing talks about what to do about this great site here: http://www.imslpforums.org/
The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is a project for the creation of a virtual library of public domain music scores, based on the wiki principle. Since its launch on February 16, 2006, more than 15000 scores, for 9000 works, by over 1000 composers (as of October 2007) were uploaded, making it one of the largest public domain music score collections on the web.[1] The project uses the popular MediaWiki software.
As of October 19, 2007, the IMSLP has closed due to legal threats[18] from Universal Edition of Vienna, Austria. The cease and desist is concerning some works that are in public domain in the server's location in Canada with copyright protection of 50 years post mortem, but are protected by the 70 years post mortem term in some other countries. The administrator of the website decided to close down the complete site until further notice:
"On Saturday October 13, 2007, I received a second Cease and Desist letter from Universal Edition. At first I thought this letter would be similar in content to the first Cease and Desist letter I received in August. However, after lengthy discussions with very knowledgeable lawyers and supporters, I became painfully aware of the fact that I, a normal college student, has neither the energy nor the money necessary to deal with this issue in any other way than to agree with the cease and desist, and take down the entire site. I cannot apologize enough to all IMSLP contributors, who have done so much for IMSLP in the last two years." from the project leader of IMSLP, Feldmahler.
There are ongoing talks about what to do about this great site here: http://www.imslpforums.org/
