Are the days of free music no more???
I am unable to download/print sheet music without being directed to join MuseScore Pro in order to do so. I have tried downloading public domain pieces from both the .com and .org sites only to be directed to pay for an upgrade to Pro,
Are the days of free music on MuseScore no more?
Just want to know in order to stop wasting time searching...
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Comments
Those days legally speaking never existed.
To be clear though, MuseScore, the notation software, is and always will be entirely free.
Sharing copyright protected scores on the online score sharing platform musescore.com isn't entirely. You can still freely share/view/play them; but downloading requires compensation for the copyright holders. This is handled through license deals, which are in part funded by the subscription money.
See https://musescore.com/groups/improving-musescore-com/discuss/5044610 for the announcement and discussion following that.
Questions about that sharing platform should be asked over on that site, it is not supported here on .org. See https://musescore.org/en/node/277874 for some clarification on the different domains and their purposes.
In reply to Those days legally speaking… by jeetee
While there's this push to "protect copyright"... I'm a 3rd yr law school student. I've already found people uploading sheets of music they have NO claim to, yet requiring payment.
So that tells me, the website is not protecting a legal claim, but making a gesture. If they were protecting legal rights, people could NOT be able to UPLOAD copywritten material.
That being said, someone would need to speak with the legal team of the website to get a real policy. This current .... thing ... is borderline fraudulent and sets them up for liability, probably that they did not intend, nor apparently foresaw.
In reply to While there's this push to … by shakaama
There's no uploader on musescore.com that does or can (successfully) claim any payment. It is the website that does, and that money does not go to the uploader, put to the publishe, the original copy right holder, if that has a contract with musescore.com.
Any score where the legal copyright holder/ publisher (not having such a contract) requires it, gets taken down (marked as unlisted to be exact).
That way the site does protect itself and the uploader from legal claims.
None of this is something to discuss here on musescore.org though... see https://musescore.org/en/faq#faq-20657
In reply to There's no uploader on… by Jojo-Schmitz
And all of this was a push to save MuseScore not to "protect copyright..." GP saved musescore.com (and possibly the entire program) from having to be totally shut down due to copyright infringement with the changes it made in download rules. If anyone likes what they can still do on musescore.com they should be grateful for the changes.
In reply to While there's this push to … by shakaama
As mentioned, discussions about the score sharing website musescore.com really belong over there on that website. But it's also important to address misleading information that is posted here.
First, note that it is perfectly acceptable for people to upload their own arrangements of music that they have no legal claim to, because musescore.com has license agreements with many publishers specifically allowing this. It isn't clear which specific pieces you are seeing uploaded that you believe are published by comapnies msuescore.com does not have such a license agreement with or how you would happen to know whether they had such an agreement or not, but that would be something to clarify over there on that site if you believe you have detected a violation.
Second, it is indeed true that musescore.com does not have agreements with all publishers, and no doubt that some of their pieces are being uploaded without permission. There are some automated things in place to detect and prevent this, but they aren't perfect, nor could anyone reasonably expect them to me. While indeed it would be nice if the musescore.com team had the resources to police all uploads manually and check them for copyright violation immediately, that's just not technically or logistically feasible. That's why copyright law allows publishers to issue takedown requests, and why musescore.com honors them. It's no different than with any other website that allows sharing. There is nothing even remotely unusual about this process, much less fraudulent.
Remove.
If the music is public domain, a free account is sufficient, no need to start the trial for the Pro account.
In reply to If the music is public… by Marc Sabatella
Although even for PD scores the uploader can prevent download.
I looked at your picture and here's what I get for the same score:
![download2.png]( "download2.png")
I have no problem downloading using a non-Pro account.
Here's the PD score's webpage:
https://musescore.com/james_brigham/scores/1494541
Though it's best to ask over at musescore.com