A wiki site that provided access to classical music scores for music out of copyright has closed down after legal threats from a music publisher.
The International Music Score Library Project was founded in Canada by college student Xiao-Guang Guo and let users upload musical scores that were in the public domain. It had become a popular resource for classical musicians who both submitted and accessed scores via the service.
However, Guo has been issued with a cease and desist letter from Austrian music publisher Universal Edition, and the student has taken the service down while he considers his options.
The legal issue seems to centre on the discrepancy between copyright terms in Canada and Europe. In the former, publishing copyright runs for 50 years after death, whereas in Europe there's a 70 year after death term. It seems IMSLP carried some musical scores which were out of copyright in Canada but which were accessible in Europe where they were still subject to copyright. Universal Edition's legal letter reportedly told Guo that: "Please note that under Canadian law a judgment rendered in Europe is enforceable in Canada".
Despite taking the wiki service down, Guo is keen to stress that the move is temporary while he considers Universal Edition's demands, writing on his site's home page: "IMSLP is not dead".