IMSLP Forums

I've been giving my scores away - for a long time. I'm probably the first composer online to do so. At least, I don't know of anybody who was doing it before the late '80's as an intentional means of publishing.

http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Harringt ... ey_Michael

Needless to say, there are a lot of different versions of my scores out there, from things I've given people to things that I'd put up at the Icking Archive. Another IMSLP user has been uploading scores to my page that I had been planning on revising - or that I'm actively revising now.

My questions:

What right do I have to ask that they be removed? My 1st String Quartet is under revision and the movement the user has uploaded is available under a different name right now (Adagio Tenebroso for String Quartet). It's the slow movement; I'm still revising the other movements.

My songs for Soprano and Marimba, Baudelaire Macabre were uploaded last month, too. I have been intending to revise them. Can I put a note saying that they're under revision? I don't see how to do that.

So, some advice, please - as a living composer, I'm flattered folks want to add scores to my IMSLP page. However, if I revise them, are they going to be different editions? All the editions are mine - they're just either out of date or kind of retracted. What rights do I have here? And more importantly, what do you guys think I should do?

Thanks!

The short answer to your question as I see it is that you have every right to remove earlier, unrevised versions of scores from the site (or, more precisely, instruct one of the admins to do so for you as actual deletion of files is best left to admins to avoid orphan files and the like). Your works are all still under copyright and you are the copyright owner. The works have been released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 license, which allows for free distribution with restrictions applying to any commercial usage and the creation of derivatives. The CC license does not invalidate the copyright, but partially waters down the right to make copies of the works. Content control remains in your hands. The one caveat is that once a work is duplicated and distributed at multiple places on the internet, it is very difficult to make sure everyone has the latest revision. IMSLP serves as a virtual library or archive, so we would naturally wish to have the latest authorized version from a composer.

To add a note indicating that a score is under revision, simply go to the edit window and add the note to the "Misc. Notes" field of the file entry. Alternately, you can just type in a note to this effect at the bottom of the workpage. When you are ready to replace the score presently on the page, just click on the file number and follow the instructions to "Upload a new version of this file".

Thanks for the feedback, Carolus! For some reason, I was under the impression that only the initial uploader could update new versions of the files. That's just what I was hoping for, in that case. I've added notes to the two pieces, as you suggested. I appreciate all you guys do here tremendously.