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But he [Jonathan Irons, Universal Edition’s promotion manager] made an effort to sound conciliatory about Mr. Guo’s project, saying several times in an interview that “there’s room for both of us.” At the same time, Mr. Irons said, it is important to separate “this very valiant and completely kosher and clean repository of public material, which we perfectly endorse, and this kind of firebrand ‘We want to show the publishers they’re wrong’ kind of attitude.”

IMSLP Faces Renewed Pressure From European Publishers
Tuesday February 22, 2011

IMSLP, the International Music Score Library Project, is back in the news as the NY Times covers its popularity and pressure from some music score publishers. The site attracted significant attention in 2007 when it received takedown threats from some European publishers. Note that contrary to the NY Times characterization of Canadian copyright as "generally looser", the key legal issue for IMSLP is the term of copyright protection. Canadian law provides life of the author plus 50 years, consistent with the requirements in the Berne Convention.

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