Copyrighted Sheet Music Sharing at Pianofiles.com
The Constable on August 26th, 2008
When it comes to intellectual property theft (or sharing, or whatever you want to call it) online, one area that is quite often overlooked is the small niche of sheet music. When it comes to music, the majority of the attention is and has been focused on audio downloads (as a quick glance at the most popular tags on this site will also attest to).
Yes, there was the crackdown a few years ago on guitar tab sites, but a quick google search will show you how effective that was. But beyond guitar tab and even audio downloads lies the foundation on which most of the music “business” is based - namely, sheet music.
Of course, there are legal outlets for downloading sheet music online, such as Musicnotes.com and Sheet Music Direct, but one issue that has plagued the sheet music industry for decades has been the photocopier. This has since been moving to the Internet through PDF downloads, etc. - and as people have become more accustomed to downloading online (both sheet music and audio), the Internet has become the new photocopier.
The current leader in online sheet music file sharing and trading is by far the web site Pianofiles.com. Boasting a catalog of over 1.5 million sheets, and well over a half of a million users, the site is quickly becoming one of the most popular destinations for online sheet music.
The site appears to be trying to skirt copyright law by not offering any actual downloads on the site itself, but instead works as a trading community, where users can trade their sheet music with each other. As for the files that are traded, it is unclear as to if they are ever hosted on the Pianofiles site. Of course, their terms require that people don’t share copyright-protected material and they have the standard “file a legal claim and we’ll take it down” system that has become the de-facto standard online.
The thing I find strange, however, is that if they really aren’t encouraging people to share copyright-protected files, why do they tell their users to buy sheet music online from Musicnotes.com or Sheet Music Plus, scan it, and upload it?
This one will be interesting to watch, since even though sheet music is a niche, it is a firmly established niche with some very well established companies (and associations) backing it. As to if Pianofiles is doing anything “illegal” by acting as an enabler, that is something I cannot answer.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
It’ll be interesting to see if anything can actually be done about this. If the site doesn’t really host the files, they are just about as liable as Google for giving people the medium to distribute illegal files.
I’m a bit of a snob I guess when it comes to copyright… as a composer I really feel my work should be purchased instead of traded freely. I love that people want to learn the music I compose, but come on… don’t steal from me!
September 9th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
[...] potentially more interesting is the quote from their CEO discussing the concerns that some of the illegal sheet music sites and networks may start to pose as they continue to proliferate. While we are proud of the loyal [...]