There is currently a major dispute going on between DIAMM (Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) and IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) over the latter’s copying of free manuscript images from DIAMM with consequent invalidations of DIAMM’s contracts with some owning libraries. IMSLP is saying the images are out there so they are free to use but DIAMM says that because of this some libraries have already withdrawn images and others might well refuse to allow further digitization. There has been a lot of discussion on MLA-L and on the IMSLP forums. This needs to be brought to the attention of the international music librarian community and your reactions are welcome.
There is currently a major dispute going on between DIAMM (Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) and IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) over the latter’s copying of free manuscript images from DIAMM with consequent invalidations of DIAMM’s contracts with some owning libraries. IMSLP is saying the images are out there so they are free to use but DIAMM says that because of this some libraries have already withdrawn images and others might well refuse to allow further digitization. There has been a lot of discussion on MLA-L and on the IMSLP forums. This needs to be brought to the attention of the international music librarian community and your reactions are welcome.
Dr. Julia Craig-McFeely from DIAMM first addressed the issue here on IMSLP (see point 9) and it was posted by DIAMM on Facebook here (no Facebook account required to read).
A discussion page was then opened on the IMSLP forums, which has generated a lot of responses: http://imslpforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7436
Please let your fellow librarians know of this issue. This is a complicated situation and translations of the key points into other languages would be most useful. Please leave your translations or comments below!
Edit: The musicology department from the University of Mainz has commented on this. Though this represents their own opinion, many key points in the debate are summarized in German: https://www.facebook.com/MusikwissenschaftUniMainz/posts/10151966492037914 (no Facebook account required to read).