International Music Score Library Project

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International Music Score Library Project
Image:Screenshot IMSLP en.png The IMSLP homepage as of May 2007
URL	http://www.imslp.org/
Commercial?	No
Type of site	Music score library
Registration	Optional (required for contributing)
Available language(s)	Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Owner	IMSLP community
Created by	Feldmahler
Launched	February 16, 2006
Current status	Closed (October 17, 2007)

The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) was a project for the creation of a virtual library of public domain music scores, based on the wiki principle. Since its launch on February 16, 2006, more than 15,000 scores, for 9,000 works, by over 1,000 composers were uploaded, making it one of the largest public domain music score collections on the web.^[1] The project used MediaWiki software to provide contributors with a familiar interface.

Following a cease and desist letter from Universal Edition of Vienna, IMSLP closed on October 19, 2007.^[2] It has since moved to a temporary site with no content.

1 History
- 1.1 Overview
- 1.2 Closure
2 Similar projects
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

History

Overview

The site launched on February 16, 2006. The library consisted mainly of scans of old musical editions out of copyright. In addition, it admitted scores by contemporary composers who wished to share their music with the world by releasing it under a Creative Commons license. One of the main projects of IMSLP was the sorting and uploading of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach in the Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe (1851-1899). Besides J.S. Bach's, Frédéric Chopin's nearly complete oeuvre was available on IMSLP.

Besides providing a digital repository, IMSLP offered possibilities as a musicological encyclopaedia, since multiple and historical editions of a single composition could be uploaded, and musicological analyses and historical commentaries accompany the scores.

IMSLP had been officially recommended by MIT,^[3]^[4] which also used it extensively in some of its OpenCourseWare courses.^[5]^[6] It was suggested as a resource by university libraries at Oberlin Conservatory of Music,^[7] Manhattan School of Music^[8] Stanford University,^[9] McGill University,^[10] Brown University,^[11] University of Maryland,^[12] University of New Mexico,^[13] University of Washington,^[14] University of Wisconsin-Madison,^[15] California Institute of the Arts,^[16] and it had been submitted to MERLOT by a member professor.^[17]

Closure

On 19 October 2007 the IMSLP closed following legal demands from Universal Edition of Vienna, Austria.^[2] The cease and desist letter expressed concern that some works that are in public domain in the server's location in Canada with copyright protection of 50 years post mortem, but which are protected by the 70 years post mortem term in some other countries were available in those countries. The administrator of the website decided to close down the repository, but left the forums online so that discussions into the best way to proceed could be made:^[18]

On Saturday October 13, 2007, I received a second Cease and Desist letter from Universal Edition. At first I thought this letter would be similar in content to the first Cease and Desist letter I received in August. However, after lengthy discussions with very knowledgeable lawyers and supporters, I became painfully aware of the fact that I, a normal college student, has neither the energy nor the money necessary to deal with this issue in any other way than to agree with the cease and desist, and take down the entire site. I cannot apologize enough to all IMSLP contributors, who have done so much for IMSLP in the last two years.

– Feldmahler (project leader)

In response, director Michael S. Hart of Project Gutenberg offered support to keep the project online.^[19] This offer was rejected by Feldmahler, who voiced concern on having the project hosted in the United States, and consulted the Canadian wing of Project Gutenberg.^[18]

This case is enormously important
from a public domain perspective.
—Michael Geist

On November 2, 2007, Michael Geist, a prominent Canadian copyright academic, wrote an article for BBC discussing the specifics and the wider implications of this case.^[20]