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IMSLP under attack AGAIN

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IMSLP (aka Petrucci Music Library) is the orchestral equivalent of CPDL, with tens of thousands of public-domain pieces available in freely-downloadable formats, often with instrumental parts. A couple of years ago, Universal Edition managed to get them shut down because some of the pieces hosted there which are in public domain in the USA and in Canada (where IMSLP is headquartered) were still protected by copyright in Europe. After a while they managed to pull that one out. But now…

Today, using a trick borrowed from those who got Wikileaks tossed of Amazon.com’s servers a few months ago, the MPA, or Music Publishers Association, has demanded the IMSLP’s webhost, Go Daddy, pull the entire IMSLP website.

That’s right. Not just one offending file, or a list of offending files, but the entire IMSLP website.

So, there must be a whole lot of illegal files on the IMSLP?

Well, of the nearly 91,000  scores hosted there, guess how many files the MPA found to be in violation. 10 thousand? 5 thousand? 50 thousand?

One.

Copyright law badly needs to be overhauled to stop this kind of nonsense.

h/t A View From the Podium


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Comments

  1. We host our chorus website with GoDaddy, so I called them asking about this.  They indeed do host IMSLP, but they said clearly that as long as the site is paid for they would not pull it just because someone like MPA demanded it.  They said that MPA would have to actually take their complaint to court and obtain a court order for IMSLP’s removal.  In that case, GoDaddy would have to comply, but not without the court order.  I’ve had great experiences with GoDaddy in the seven years we have been with them, and am inclined to trust their explanation for this.  Hope this is helpful.
    Glen McCune
    One Voice Chorus
    onevoicechorus.org

  3. By the way, there are a number of choral works in the IMSLP holdings.  For example, search for Robert Schumann and notice the many choral works listed.
     
    Sandy Glass
    Music Director, Coro Innominata
    ph. +61 0401 618 540

  4. Although I make absolutely no use of IMSLP, not being an instrumental conductor, this is a form of intellectual terrorism by the MPA.  It’s ridiculous; and it can only stop if MPA is struck financially.  If it’s only ONE file, then this is so over-the-top as a reaction as to be positively risible – except, of course, court costs are nothing to laugh about.  I know that the value of CPDL for me as a choral director is huge (we just did the Tartini “Stabat Mater” – the whole thing – for the Veneration of the Cross at our parish Friday – and the original score was from CPDL), and I can imagine that in these tight days for budgets, IMSLP has the same value for instrumental directors who have extremely tight budgets.  Nonsense, nonsense, don’t make no sense at all!!!
     
    Ron Duquette
    Director of Music, Fort Belvoir, VA

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