Klarinet Archive - Posting 000896.txt from 2000/07

From: Oliver Seely <oliver@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Fuchs Clarinet Quintet Score
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 01:55:20 -0400

Regarding Andrea's point,

>I know that there is an international law (I don't remember exactly... I've
>to ask a guy) which says that if a work is not under copyright but you have
>found it in a library, you have to pay a special bill to the library.

in the final analysis it's not going to matter much longer. A
correspondent in Laos (of all places!) alerted me to a Web site,

http://www.cdsheetmusic.com/

which offers complete works (scanned sheet music only) of various composers
on CD-ROM for between $14.95 and $18.95 each. I figure what they've done
is to find published works long out of copyright, scanned them to produce
image files and created a standard CD-ROM.

One of the Frequently Asked Questions says:

Q: Do the CDs include MIDI files of the pieces?
A: The current CDs are simply scans of sheet music and do not
contain MIDI files. If we included MIDI functionality, we wouldn't be able
to bring you the huge number of pieces that are included on each CD at
these low prices. Future plans include opera and possibly other CDs with
some MIDI accompaniment files.

Given a development such as this, the bottom is going to fall out of the
value of sheet music which is in the public domain. Another effect of this
development might be the loss of control exercised by Wagner's descendents
over the possession of manuscripts of his operas and their performances.
Stay tuned. What an interesting time to be alive.

Oliver

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org