Book People Archive

IMSLP (free sheet music website) forced to shut down

[Moderator: We've mentioned this case before (for the relevant quote
 from my post, and Michael Hart's response, see
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2007&post=2007-10-23,2 )

 This post, though, does include some additional links and commentary.
 One small correction to the summary below: The shutdown, to my knowledge,
 was not in response to an actual lawsuit, but to the threat of one. - JMO]


To book people --
 
OK, this is about sheet music & not books, but it seems pretty  important.  
IMSLP, a Canadian website providing public-domain (in  Canada) sheet music for 
free download, has been effectively forced to shut  down by a lawsuit from the 
Austrian music publisher Universal Edition.   See, e.g. the Toronto Star 
article:


        _http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/271389_ 
(http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/271389) 
 
To quote from this article:  "There is little doubt that the site was  
compliant with Canadian law. Not only is there no obligation to block
non-Canadian visitors, but the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that
sites such  as IMSLP are entitled to presume that they are being used
in a lawful  manner. -- The site would therefore not be subject to
claims that it  authorized infringement." 

See also the "box" within this article headed "Canada's public domain under  
seige [sic]".  This does in fact deal with a case involving  online books.  
Best,
 
        --Tom
 
--
Tom  Frenkel
email: frethoa AT aol DOT com
website: _http://members.aol.com/frethoa_ (http://members.aol.com/frethoa)