A Composer's-Eye View of the Copyright Wars

bonch writes "As an experiment, composer Jason Robert Brown logged onto a site illegally offering his sheet music for download and contacted hundreds of users, politely asking them to stop listing the material. Most complied, some were confused, and a few fought back. Brown chronicles a lengthy exchange he had with a teenage girl named Brenna, which provides an interesting insight into the artists' perspective of the copyright debate. He also responds to several points raised in comments to the article and says, 'I don't wish to be the enemy; I'm just a guy trying to make a living.'"

Comments

Re:It's not "trade"

[matzahboy]

You are allowed to share, as long as it is the original copy. That's how libraries work. You are allowed to buy a piece of sheet music and give it to a friend. But you are not allowed to buy a piece of sheet music and give your friend a replica. Then there are 2 copies and you only paid for one. Without DRM, it is nearly impossible to share music or sheet music legally on the internet. To share it legally would mean deleting your copy when you send it to a friend.

Re:he talks abtou a site that has sheet music

[madpansy]

The best solution for individuals wanting to learn new music, inefficient in the short term but invaluable in the long run, is to learn how to play by ear and transcribe the music yourself. But I'm sure you've heard that before. Anyway here are some sheet music sites I know of, primarily piano.

• PianoSheets.org Torrent site. Registrations are closed, but says you can go to their IRC channel to apply.
• Piano Files Digital sheet music trading site. List your collection, then e-mail others to request sheets from their list to trade for.
• GamingForce Video Game forum, but also has a broad range of sheet music. Have to register to see the forum; once you do, it's under concert hall > musician's library.

In case anyone does not already know, IMSLP is a great site for public domain sheet music.