IMSLP copyrighted scores being sold on eBay

[Lyle Neff]

This morning in my mail I read the following (name of sender removed):

Subject: Someone is stealing your music
Dear Mr. Neff,

I am an amateur composer with lots of arrangements out there in cyberspace. I am always on the lookout for people stealing music and whenever I find a thief, I notify the victim....

I took a look at your Sonata for French Horn at IMSLP. Nice piece. It looks like you've done all you can to protect it. However, there is a guy selling your Sonata on ebay. Here is the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0427668873

That kind of behavior turns my stomach. Anyway, if you feel the same, ebay doesn't tolerated copyright theft. If you notify them, they will pull the listing and give this guy a talking-to.

Please let me know what happens.

I haven't checked, but I assume the eBay seller's collection has other copyrighted pieces from IMSLP, in this and other DVD collections sold there from the same seller.

I've gone ahead and filled out the complaint form on eBay. My question is: if it's true what the e-mail says about eBay and copyright, can IMSLP send eBay a notice about this matter on behalf of all similarly affected composers? (The complaint form doesn't have much room to explain anything. A longer e-mail letter would help.)

[Carolus]

Thanks for the notice. I have already made an online complaint to Ebay and will be filing their PDF infringement form, which has to be faxed. It's pretty obvious that this character is simply copying items from IMSLP burning CDs and selling them without paying any attention to the Creative Commons notice which is clearly visible on the page for your Horn Sonata. Why anyone would pay for this is beyond me, but as P.T. Barnum observed "there's a sucker born every minute." BTW, just an aside to all of the composers, arrangers and editors who might be reading this - Please carefully read through the different Creative Commons licenses that are available and make your choice accordingly. For example, if Lyle had simply elected to use the lowest-level CC license (attribution only), the character on Ebay would be legally entitled to include the Horn Sonata in his CD collection and sell it on Ebay - without paying Lyle a penny in royalties. If you do not want this happening to your work, please avail yourselves of the more restrictive licenses under the CC umbrella (as Lyle has done here).

[KGill]

If I make the necessary changes to my files, is it possible to change the license on my works?

[Lyle Neff]

Dear Carolus,

Thanks for that.

This afternoon I received an eBay response from "rswebhelp" to my first complaint (I later made 3-4 others, after looking at the seller's other "wares" with my compositions in them).

Dear Brennan,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to items listed on eBay that
infringe on your intellectual property rights. [...]

It's bad enough they call me by the wrong name. Then they send me to a form to fill out for their "VeRO" program. I shouldn't have to do that. That's ridiculous. They should require that the DVD seller prove that s/he has the right to issue everything that s/he is selling. (Maybe I didn't choose the most appropriate items from their conditional menus -- but that's eBay's fault for lack of clarity.)

[Carolus]

@KGill, It's very easy to change the version of the CC license on the work-page itself. As long as the needed change is made to the PDF file as well, you should be completely covered. I strongly recommend that all composers and arrangers is to use a CC license with the "non-commercial" appendage to prevent this type of thing from happening. There are numerous folks selling things on CD and DVD over at Ebay - and that's just one example of many commercial operations out there. Composers especially need to think about allowing unlimited derivative uses of their work also. Unless you prohibit derivatives, it is permissible for anyone to create an arrangement, orchestration or other adaptation that could very well conflict with your own idea about how the work should be presented.

@Lyle, The fax form is fairly detailed. I fully expect it will take a while for them to respond. However, the information provided on the form will leave them little choice but to shut this bozo down. Here's the page where you can download the PDF: http://pages.ebay.com/vero/notice.html . I recommend that you send them one also.

I've noticed that the characters who sell the CDs and DVDs do not hesitate in the least to sell things that are very much under copyright in the USA - like Ravel's orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition, Gershwin titles, etc. Ebay apparently makes no actual attempt at copyright enforcement before the fact, which I think is curious considering the potential liability they'd be in for.

[Melodia]

It's bad enough they call me by the wrong name. Then they send me to a form to fill out for their "VeRO" program. I shouldn't have to do that. That's ridiculous. They should require that the DVD seller prove that s/he has the right to issue everything that s/he is selling. (Maybe I didn't choose the most appropriate items from their conditional menus -- but that's eBay's fault for lack of clarity.)

If you think about that, you'll see why that'd be pretty ridiculous.

[Carolus]

This character, who apparently is operating out of Melbourne, Australia, is presently offering no less than 41 CDs or DVDs on Ebay - each no-doubt consisting of items downloaded from IMSLP. He is of course free to do whatever he likes with the public domain works, since they are - after all - public domain. However, every single CD or DVD I examined the contents listing for contained works which are clearly restricted under CC and our own performance-restricted license. He's basically behaving in an utterly lawless manner here. Welcome to the flip side of the great copyright debate. This is why there are copyright laws on the books. Yes, the term has been extended to absurd lengths; yes, there are too many insane restrictions and claims being made. Nevertheless, the Ebay seller is brazenly violating the CC licenses under which the copyrighted items have been posted, and is doing so for unabashedly commercial reasons.

[Philidor]

I've linked to this thread (and quoted Carolus) on Brightcecilia and will Tweet it. Hope that's OK. We've many active composer members who should know about this. Thank you to Lyle Neff and Carolus for jumping through the tedious bureaucratic hoops necessary to deal with this character. Ebay's reaction will be interesting to watch.

[jfarrington]

I don't know if this is the same guy, but a few years ago someone pointed out to me that an eBayer was selling dvds of music loaded from Sibley's collection (it was easy to tell because the metadata they used was exactly ours). After a little discussion, we decided not to pursue it because the works that we're putting up are all PD (in the U.S., and pretty much worldwide). Thus anyone can do what they want with the material. We thought that if someone was dumb enough to pay some schmuck for something that they could easily obtain for free, it's not worth us getting jacked up about. Now, works that are available under a CC license is a different matter, but as far as PD works go, this kind of thing has been going on for quite some time.

[Lyle Neff]

Apparently this current Ebay dude is relying greatly on the "list of" pages that we have (e.g., List of pieces for horn), rather than having his system crawl around for all "piano piece" pages, etc., because he seems not to have gotten my few piano pieces or vocal works on IMSLP -- yet. (I had added my pieces to the lists for organ music and for various combinations in chamber music; those are the kind of Ebay pages he seems to have made, along with orchestral ones and lists for some composers.)

I've filled out the infringement-complaint form -- but it's really crappy that you have to fax it. Before I do that, I'm waiting for a reply from the e-mail address below to my question as to whether I can send a scanned PDF by e-mail instead.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact us at the following email address:

vero@ebay.com.

[Choralia]

Just to let you know that we are having a similar problem at CPDL, with scores sold by http://www.everynote.com. See:

http://forums.cpdl.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4842

We are currently considering actions that we can undertake.

Max

[Philidor]

it's really crappy that you have to fax it.

Can't you use an electronic fax program? I used one all the time in the 1990s. You just type your letter/form, on your machine, save it to your hard drive, then pull up the fax program, load in the letter/form, fill in the fax number, and press the button. The document comes out the other end as a traditional fax. But I was on dial-up. I don't know how it would work on fibre optic broadband.

[Lyle Neff]

I just got a response from Ebay. They require fax on the first complaint form, I suppose as a verification measure. Subsequent infringements can be reported in PDF.

Yes, I have an electronic fax facility on my computer at home -- although I haven't used it in a while.

I just wanted to save on the long distance charges. I'm CHEAP that way.

[Carolus]

I filed 40 additional complaints with Ebay today. Lyle, have you looked for your work over at EveryNote? It appears the they are up to similar fun and games from Choralia's link to the discussion at the CDPL forum. EveryNote is owned (at least partially) by Amazon, I believe. hellominor (the name of our Ebay friend) not only offers Lyle's work, but those of just about every other composer who has posted their items here at IMSLP. Please do keep in mind that the lowest level CC license - attribution only - does not prohibit this activity. So, if you really do not want these folks selling copies of your scores and keeping every cent for themselves, please uses another CC license or our own performance-restricted license. That's why we have them listed as options. By offering them for sale, hellominor has violated the terms of the CC-nc and CC-sa licenses under which a number of works are available. He could possibly remedy this situation by simply offering these works on a separate "free bonus" CD/DVD to the DVDs and CDs of public domain works he is selling.

[Choralia]

At CPDL we moved the topic into the admin-restricted area of the forums to discuss actions in a more confidential way. I've updated the above link to display the initial part of the topic that I copied to the public area of the CPDL forums.

Max