I just saw an exchange of letters between various people and the replies of UE...
Now I reread the letter and saw the following part:
(Acrobat stuffed up a bit here, but you get the point)It is our understandingth at it is possiblet o filter lP addresseso f those who take part in
copying files from your site to prevent such unauthorized copyright infringement.
However,w e furtheru nderstandth at such safeguardsa re not in place. As a resulto f the
lack of safeguardso n the IMSLPf rom infringingC anadiana nd Europeanc opyrightla w,
you and your organizationa re involvedi n a collectivee ffortt o breachc opyright.
This is a violationo f bothE uropeana nd Canadianc opyrighlta w.
We therefore demand that you cease and desist from offering on your web site the
musicals coresa nd any other copyrightedw orks of the UE Authors. Thesew orks should
be removed by no later than October 19. 2007.
We furtherd emandt haty ou institutea filterings ystemt o the IMSLPt hatw ouldp revent
any furtheru ploadingo f the UE Artists'ss cofesu ntila ftert he expiryo f Europeana nd
Canadianc opyrighitn those works
If I read correctly the point is this:
A. There are a few scores that are still copyrighted (so remove them)
B. Find a way to make sure no more copyrighted works get on the site (again seems doable).
I really don't see the letter as THAT bad really, although I did panic, and let everybody I know know about IMSLP, and I have my own scores on the site as well.
Somehow UE is not unreasonable, I'm sorry to say.
I'm open to flames, etc 24/7 and blah blah.
But really could someone explain to me, what is SO hard in reopening IMSLP? Either way, I'm dead sure that Composers dead before 1900 are no problem 100%, and thus begin with those and move on, after negotiations etc...
Am I dumb or something?