Klarinet Archive - Posting 000522.txt from 2004/08

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] My Sibelius page probably closing
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 09:12:55 -0400


[Parts of this message are cross-posted to the contrabass.com list.]
SibeliusMusic.com now requires all participating composers to agree to new
"Terms and Conditions" that subject us to unreasonable legal liability, in
my opinion. I'm unwilling to sign the terms as they're currently written.

Yesterday, I wrote,
>Fair warning -- If anybody has been thinking about
>listening to any of my music compositions online or
>printing them out (free of charge), but you haven't
>gotten around to it yet, please don't delay. That's
>because my web page (link below my signature) may
>be removed from the SibeliusMusic.com
>self-publishing web site at any time.

I hoped I could stall for a few days without either agreeing or refusing
the terms, while trying to get the contract modified, but the discussion I
initiated on the SibeliusMusic chat site doesn't seem to have swayed either
the Webmaster or most of the participants. The last exchange, this
morning, made clear that the majority in the chat group (with a few welcome
exceptions, including our own Tony Wakefield -- thanks, Tony!) either
weren't convinced I was serious, or weren't taking my arguments seriously.
Stalling any longer, in the hope of somehow avoiding those Terms and
Conditions while still keeping the web site open, seemed counterproductive.
Therefore I made clear that I meant what I'd written, by going back to the
sign-up form and checking the box for some formal equivalent of, "Buzz
off." That means those scores are online for only as long as it takes for
the SibMus Webmaster to get around to deleting them.

In private e-mail during the last few weeks, two people on the klarinet
list asked me to arrange a piano piece, "Dancing with Ghillie Dhu," for
clarinet ensemble. I agreed to do so, and will go ahead and finish the
transcription, but unfortunately, I now have no place to post the sheet
music for you to print it out. Before offering it via snail mail, I'd like
to wait a bit and see whether the situation at SibMus mutates -- although
my sense of things right now is that the people in charge aren't going to
budge. Also, I prefer not to rely on common law copyright. Since I'm
losing the copyright protection inherent in self-publishing the scores from
a dated website, and have no way of being sure what records SibMus may or
may not retain, I need time to compile and register a new "collected works"
volume with the U.S. Copyright Office, before I start snail-mailing
anything. I'll announce if and when my scores will be available again.

Lelia Loban
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban
America can do better: Kerry and Edwards in 2004!

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