Provider of Free Public Domain Music Re-Opens 142
Chip Zoller writes "This community took note when the International Music Score Library Project shut down last October, and when Project Gutenberg stepped in to help three days later. I would like to alert you all that our site, IMSLP, has re-opened to the public for good after a 10-month hiatus. All the news updates in the interim can be found linked to the main page. We take great pride in re-opening as it demonstrates our willpower to make the masterpieces of history free to the world; and moreover to make manifest that we will not be bullied by publishers sporting outrageous claims of copyright in a country where they clearly are expired."
Re:I have to say it (Score:3, Insightful)
Be prepared to fight the music mafia, worse than you have before. After all, you are presenting a very nasty precedent for them, that copyright on music actually expires and that people can and do make use of it without even asking them first.
I don't know about that. We're talking about sheet music and stuff that's been around for a LONG time, so it's not really different from what Project Gutenberg is doing - clearly public domain stuff.
But yes, it's outrageous what people think they can milk money out of. If it were possible, the recording industry would sue you for breathing.
Re:I have to say it (Score:3, Insightful)
I truly hope I am wrong,I really do.
Over the years there have been doomsday prophets, one after the other, but most have been wrong. I agree though that we are in for a rude shock if technology tightens enough so that we can't hack it and we can't share stuff anymore. As things stand currently, I think the movement against DRM is strong and healthy and I'm hopeful we'll manage to giver our grandkids a world that still cares and shares, hopefuly more than it does now.
Re:I have to say it (Score:2, Insightful)
If you're talking about Ayn Rand, she didn't give you a glimpse of anything but her own slightly sick and sad psyche.
Unfortunately, many of our business-school graduates and young bloggers have read Atlas Shrugged and didn't realize it was more about Ms Rand psychopathology than about reality. Further, those same newly minted MBAs and sad little bloggers like to think of themselves as the Masters of the World, so they bought into Rand's wrong-headed delusions.
Now the rest of us are stuck cleaning up the mess for these overgrown 3-year old male children.
This has more to do with the "unrivaled greed of these large media companies" than you may think.
Re:PRS (Score:2, Insightful)
As far as I know, music played in private, for your own personal enjoyment, is not subject to *any* payment of royalties. Only those made in public, and usually those of a commercial nature.
Since your house was a previous licensed premises, I think all of that gets dismissed since it is no longer a commercial establishment in nature.
Tell em to kiss off, in my opinion. If they insist, I'd charge them back a monthly fee...
Re:Needed: Cheap Sheet Music Viewer (Score:3, Insightful)
To me it sounds like the solution to your problem is a cheap printer. Or at least that between that and the ones playing it off their laptop screen for free, I don't think there's a market for a specialized device. Standard tablet PC with said software perhaps? Though I've rarely seen those in actual use, so it doesn't surprise me that they're expensive.
Re:Fantastic (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't let that stop you, friend.
Even with a moderately difficult piece, if you work at a small section for, say, a half-hour a day, you'll sit down one day to play it and find that it sounds like music. I'm not saying that as an adult you can learn to play like Glenn Gould, but there's a lot of joy to be had getting a little better, a little at a time.
Re:I have to say it (Score:4, Insightful)
I believe that the big desktop PC will eventually go the way of the 8 track,replaced by "media appliances" in the same way that cell phones are phasing out the landlines. When everything ends up hooked to the Internet it won't be hard to have a "WGA" style check done on all your media to check your usage rights,and sites like IMSLP will be relegated to content so old that Henry Ford was still making his Model T and talkies was still a popular name for a movie.
You think the world is online? You think the world is ever going to BE online? They'd be lucky if they could stop selling Blu-Rays in 100 years or more, in my opinion. Also, anything that doesn't play unsigned music/video is dead on arrival and that's not about to change. They tried putting the cat back in the bag with iTunes/AAC/FairPlay, they tried putting the cat back in the bag with Nlu-Ray/AACS/BD+. I think they're out of options, if you tell people to replace their perfectly working 1080p 7.1 LPCM player that looks and sounds great with something new just so they can try it again it won't work. Try as they may, I don't think they'll ever "unbreak" media.
Re:PRS (Score:3, Insightful)
So you'd either have to play a record which is out of copyright (good luck finding such an old record and hooking up a suitable record player to a modern amp - few modern decks will play at 78RPM) or find 100 year old sheet of music and pay a performer to play that alone.
In other words, there are exceptions but they're sufficiently esoteric that it's vanishingly unlikely that anyone will take advantage of them.
Or music published by the author under a Creative Commons licence [creativecommons.org]. Or my own compositions played by myself. Or folks songs performed by myself without reference to sheet music.
Re:PRS (Score:3, Insightful)
They are notifying you because your house previously had a premises license. However as it's now domestic (I presume) then simply notifying them that it no longer has a premises license and that it is a domestic dwelling should be enough.
Well, obviously. Ignoring them is fine. The question is how much fun can be had by entering into a dialogue.
Re:I have to say it (Score:2, Insightful)
I found Fanny Hill quite timeless.
Re:This is great news! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I have to say it (Score:2, Insightful)
Or are you playing from a modern edition, which a 20th scholar has taken time to translate into something you can read?
Re:New editions of old music (Score:2, Insightful)
Frankly, nor is Sibelius, nor Finale without a lot of manual adjustment.