The War on the Imagination

[redslider]

I must confess, I am not a musician or musicologist at all. In fact, I am just an aging poet. I came to IMSLP only a few days ago to renew a personal desire to add a little music to my life. Thirty years ago I played a little classical guitar and, in my childhood, an even smaller repetoire of piano pieces. I can't even really sight-read a score - I managed by the hunt and peck method. But even the couple of pieces - a couple of Bach preludes, a few small Schumann lieder, have given me immense joy.

What I wish to say, is that this assault (for what else can it be called?) on the common heritage of all of us is not limited to music scores as most of you know. The entire stock of the public commons is under attack by a few who intend to privatize and commercialize just about everything. While many of the comments here focus on EU and its arcane findings on intellectual property rights; America is no laggard in the rush to transfer the public domain into private hands. Everything from heirloom flower and vegetable seeds to National Parks, Roads, health care, education, libraries and even the images of art-objects held by museums around the world are being swept into the nets of private greed.

That said, I do hope that some of those foundations and universities and legal resources mentioned will quickly come to the aid of efforts such as IMSLP to keep the treasures it has stewarded from being looted by a few, very greedy individuals. However, I also hope that it becomes clear to all that each stolen segment of the public commons (its music, art, culture, infrastructure...) must not only be fought for in its own terms, but must also seek to press the people's case in a concerted effort on behalf of all the vulnerable objects our cultural heritage. If there are such organizations already doing this, I for one would appreciate hearing about them. The only one I know about might be EFF, though their usual focus is on privacy and the public commons of the internet.

Diane Di Prima wrote in her poem 'Lobos', The Only War is the War on the Imagination". The assault on IMSLP and similar efforts is precisely that, a war on the imagination.

My Best to All, and wishes that this hiatus is short-lived.

Red Slider
Sacramento

[pml]

Hear, hear.

PML

[Vivaldi]

It's not a question of it, but when IMSLP will be back.

[Yagan Kiely]

Deliberations and discussions are being held for various reasons and with various people/organisations regarding the future of IMSLP, I apologise for closing this thread, which under normal circumstances would be a legitimate thread. However, the current status of IMSLP is not normal, and is quite frankly slightly unstable. It is because of this I need to close all threads with a similar topic as to stop the forum from flooding in such times.

Apologies again,
AW7