******* READ THIS BEFORE POSTING *******

This forum is for suggesting works to other members. Ideally, your thread title should be in the format of "<composer>: <name of the work>". In your post, be sure to provide at least some basic information about the work, and state why you believe it is worthy of others' attention.

Please note that you are not permitted to provide links to a recording and/or video of the work on another site unless that recording or video is in the public domain. Often, though by no means always, this means you will not be able to include links to MP3s uploaded to free file hosts or videos from sites such as YouTube. If you do provide links to copyrighted material, they will be removed.

If you are looking to procure a legal recording or MIDI file of a work you wish to suggest, you might try perusing the following resources:

Classic Cat - the free classical mp3 directory
CLASSICAL MUSIC ARCHIVES - CLASSICAL MUSIC

I really don't understand why this needs to be so stringent.. It bugs me. Providing links to (sometimes copyrighted) material can help raise awareness of good music and it doesnt necessarily have to equal to us condoning piracy.

It should be the members' responsibility what they do with the links that are provided.

Read my posts in this thread for some background: Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Sonata

Yeah, I agree. I've found out about some great music from this section, and I actually have gone out and bought a few of the songs that have been suggested here.

It is the members responsibility, but bottom line is that:

A. Not all members are mature or know what's legal and what's not
B. The forum could be frowned upon for hosting illegal material somehow (even in form of links).
C. It is in the end illegal (not that I agree with it and I certainly agree that it helps bring awarness, just for the record, so no Saiming will come on my back again)

Originally Posted by Mike

Read my posts in this thread for some background: Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Sonata

I read those, but I still think it's much too stringent. These should be much more lax - unless you are planning on turning this place into a major commercial music publisher (wasn't that Chopin's megalomaniac intent? ) it's really not that necessary to play Mr. Law enforcer.. -Lax is better for a forum of this size.

These arguments are thin as hell, I know. I'm just trying to appeal to your open-mindedness.

I'm open-minded, but when I put my admin hat on, I have to make objective decisions that are in the best interests of the site, regardless of whether those decisions may upset a few people.

Like I said, if we're lax on people linking to copyrighted recordings/videos, what's to stop them linking to pirated software as well? Outside of possible monetary issues, I find it impossible to differentiate between these two acts.

Anyway, like Nikolas showed us, it's perfectly possible to find legal recordings on YouTube, for one. Also check out Classic Cat - the free classical mp3 directory (a site I had previously forgotten about, and one that is going to go back into my bookmarks). This too: CLASSICAL MUSIC ARCHIVES - CLASSICAL MUSIC I think I'll add these into the opening post as suggested resources.

Legal recordings? yes. Legal, good recordings? Usually not..

Like I said, if we're lax on people linking to copyrighted recordings/videos, what's to stop them linking to pirated software as well? Outside of possible monetary issues, I find it impossible to differentiate between these two acts.

Really? I find it pretty simple. Music is art and should be shared. It exists only to be shared. I think we as a composition website should.. go by this.. at least consider it.

Legal recordings? yes. Legal, good recordings? Usually not..

A lot of them are fairly good, actually. At least for "demonstration purposes".

Music is art and should be shared. It was made to be shared.

Tell that to a lawyer.

And I'm sure these decisions aren't in the best interest of this site at all... You'll keep Michael out of jail, though...

Tell that to a lawyer.

I'm not communicating my idea of the musical utopia - that all artists should be provided for by the state, but it's not necessary for a site of this site to be so anal about laws. At all. To worry about lawsuits is paranoid at best..

But whatever I know I'm not going to get anywhere with this.