IMSLP - International Music Score Library Project

There might still be warnings up saying that for specific countries in Europe, some works may still be (c).

Answers your statement.

I hope IMSLP returns soon. It proved so useful, and I found myself discovering so much more music when it was online.

It will return soon, we just have to wait a bit

Okay, if everything runs smoothly we are looking at a June/July comeback.

And if you have money to spare (once it comes back up), IMSLP will be glad to receive some.

Originally Posted by jujimufu

It will return soon, we just have to wait a bit

I'm becoming impatient.

Hey, do you have any idea what they've been through? Do you think it's easy for them to know that there's quite a few people who dedicated endless hours contributing to IMSLP in one or another way and they can't believe the site is down and would do anything to see it up and running again? They want to do things right, they want to find someone to support them so that companies like UE won't be able to scare them so easily with fallacious law threats in the future, because they want to make something that will stay.

Now, if you can help IMSLP get up again, then do so, if you can't, then watch your mouth and appreciate the effort that other people are doing to get the site up again.

For fuck's sake, CHILL.

For fuck's sake, CHILL.

That is chilled. The amount of people IMSLP gets accusing it of being lazy, incompetent or having ulterior motives is growing all the time.

This is the question I want answered:

Would you prefer IMSLP to come back up now, and then go offline in a few months due to legal threats?

or

Wait those few months and have IMSLP come back indefinitely and be able to fight off legal cases and still maintain the site?

We don't really care which, because we have chosen the second option.

Originally Posted by Yagan Kiely

That is chilled. The amount of people IMSLP gets accusing it of being lazy, incompetent or having ulterior motives is growing all the time.

Maybe there's a reason for that? did you ever think of that?

And everyone involved in IMSLP (at least you two, Juji and you AW7) seem to be really touchy whenever the name IMSLP comes up!

I'm all up to support IMSLP, even donate money if needed! But the fact for me still remains that "you" took advantage of the UE situation to shut the site down. I find this wrong, plainly put, since it's misleading. The site shut down, not because of legal threats but because the burden was too much. The whole situation took SO MUCH publishity only because UE was a part of it and the whole "poor little IMSLP was shut down by giant eveil cooperation" style! Well guess what??!? The site shut down because the main admins were too tired and had too much to do on their hands! which is PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE for me:
Take the site down, fix what is there to fix, automate the whole site and bring it back up. Problem solved. All this story with UE? Unacceptable imho! You did it, so swim in it now!

(The "you" is anyone responsible for IMSLP, or not, not Juji, or AW7 personally)

Unless I'm misreading something or misunderstanding something, in both which cases, honestly explain to me. Cause I've been to the IMSLP forums plenty of times, and this is what I saw!

As for IMSLP: Fucking amazing site! I'd like to see it tomorrow up. But I know that it's not possible and that you need to work REALLY hard in order to make things happen better and avoid any complications for the future. So take your time, do things right, remember that people loved and needed the site and still do (love and need).

Does this answer your questions?

No no no, IMSLP didn't "find a chance to close down" with the UE threats, it's just that it was easier to have the site down than to have it up. Putting the site offline for the moment was the easy way to get away from all the legal issues, the.

Maintaining IMSLP was already difficult for the administration (especially the founder himself, being a masters student and thus having loads of other obligations), and it just became exponentially more difficult after UE sent its second C&D letter. After having read every single document relevant to the accusations of UE, I can say that their arguments are highly fallacious, and their threats are quite absurd, without mentioning their unbelievably rude and cynical towards IMSLP and, indirectly, the rest of the open source community as well. I have nothing against UE, and if there is a reason that I will refrain from buying a UE score in the future if I have a choice is not because they sued/threatened IMSLP, but because of their attitude throughout the whole correspondence and publicity of this matter.

"All the story with UE" is not about IMSLP alone. You must have read it already, but anyway, here's the link to Michael Geist's article on BBC:

BBC NEWS | Technology | Music copyright in the spotlight

This is the real problem, whether with the internet there are no longer individual country laws, but one should take into account all laws in all countries with access to internet, which would make things quite impossible and impractical.

As for the "poor little IMSLP was shut down by giant evil cooperation", I think that's more evident in UE's writings than those of the IMSLP administration. The admins have been projecting an image of a very confident website, that wasn't poor (many people have agreed to donate) or little (more than 15,000 scores by volunteers in less than 2 years), and that is certainly coming back, this time to stay. On the other hand, if you read UE's article on their website: http://www.uemusic.at/truman/en_temp...hp3?f_id=14921

you'll see that it's them who present IMSLP as a poor attempt to provide something which costs loads of money for free, and they keep insisting that free things cannot last in this world, and it was naive and unprofessional of IMSLP not to charge their members for the scores. They also say that because the site was founded by a student and was run by volunteers made it a site not to be taken seriously. It's them who keep promoting the idea of "whoever messes with the guys with big pockets, will get something similar". They keep promoting that money is absolutely necessary in achieving something, and that any attempts in "free" websites should be "punished", and that this situation with IMSLP "is to be taken as an example" to other such free websites. IMSLP never projected any of the above ideas or comments. Ever. They never said that "we are martyrs in a capitalist war and the liars and thieves with the money will always win, but please look at us, we are pathetic, we need your help to beat these thieves". Ever.

As for IMSLP being down for the moment, imagine this situation: it's raining, and you want to go across a river which is far away from home, and you walk all the way to the river, only to find it's almost impossible to cross because of the rain, it's easier to just go back home for a while, until the rain is over, or until you can find something to help you cross the river, than to wait by the river still, hoping the rain will stop or that you will find something to cross the river with. That doesn't mean you've always wanted to go back home, and you waited for an opportunity to do so, but because it serves the final goal far better than staying by the river.

That's not a very good analogy, because UE threatening IMSLP is not something that is irrelevant/independent to IMSLP's actions, but you get the point. If you don't, tell me and I'll try and find a better analogy


And yes, I am really touchy about it, because I've spent endless hours translating the whole website into Greek, uploading some 800 scores, correcting title pages and all the sorts of things that take a lot of time but someone has to do them (I am not implying in any way that I was the only one to do these things), and I do get really annoyed when people haven't even bothered finding out the real reasons behind IMSLP's closure and blame all the people who are working really hard to get it back (not me, I can't do much right now, it's up to the admins) for IMSLP being down, just because they want to download that score they like, and nothing else. I am annoyed at all those people who take things for granted and do not understand that there's a lot of people behind the end result which they take advantage of, and that it's best if you give before you take in an open-source driven community. Showing some respect towards the people who have worked hard for IMSLP and the people who are still working hard to get IMSLP back for good is the least they can do, and saying "imslp admins - u r lazeh, get the fucking site up again" is not one of the things I'd say to people I respect.

That's why I am touchy.