IMSLP Forums

Given that this site is hosted in Canada and I'm a Canadian located in Canada, why can't I download scores listed here which are public domain in Canada, although not so in the US?

Specifically, I'm looking this Prokofiev score:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Special:ImagefromIndex/66139

I suppose I could always just wait 20 years for the copyright to run out in the US also, but I'd like to think there's a better option available.

Well, that score's also not PD in the EU—in fact, US-copyrighted but EU-copyrighted scores are available.

To actually answer the post
The reason that US copyright law holds force is, very simply, that the company that owns the main site is located in the US. It would open IMSLP to legal action if a US-owned company were to offer scores that were under copyright there, even if the server is in Canada.
However, as Perlnerd points out, we do have an EU-based server that offers files under copyright in the US but not in the EU or Canada; not only that, but a US server is in development to host scores PD there but under copyright elsewhere.
What I'm getting at is that the only way to rectify this situation is to move Project Petrucci LLC (the company that owns the Canadian servers) to physically reside in Canada, unless you know anyone there who would be willing to start a Canadian branch of IMSLP. Until either one of those becomes a possibility, I'm afraid you'll have to wait it out.

KGill is correct. One of the things we have been working on lately is the establishment of some co-operating servers which are not actually owned by IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library, but by independent people or entities where files can be hosted in cooperation. If you notice how things work with IMSLP-EU, the link from IMSLP does not take you directly to a file, but to a page on the EU server (owned by another party) where one must click on a disclaimer that one can legally download the file in question. So, if there's anyone in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, China or another country with a 50 pma copyright term, who owns a server and has the time and skill to set it up, it would be entirely possible to have files on it which are free for download in those territories. Not only are there a lot of different copyright laws in various countries around the world, there are actually differing definitions and applications of the idea of "fair use." So, while it is true that there are a number of items which are still under copyright in the EU due to the last surviving contributor having died less than 70 years ago, it is entirely possible that it would nonetheless be legal to download the file in some EU countries as long as it was free due to the application of fair use doctrine. There is simply no way we can keep track of all of the wrinkles and exceptions in the more than 150 laws around the world.

Just to add that IMSLP-EU and IMSLP-US are being developed in such a way that the same concepts (e.g., php scripts) can be re-used for other regional IMSLP servers. I'm ready to provide support to anybody may be willing to establish a regional IMSLP server in their area.

Max