Universal Edition - Litigation Threats

Litigation Threats

On October 19, 2007, Universal Edition entered legal proceedings against the International Music Score Library Project, an online entity which seeks to make musical scores in the public domain available digitally. In response to a cease-and-desist letter from Universal Edition demanding that certain scores still covered by Austrian copyright be removed, IMSLP closed itself voluntarily, amidst controversy that UE's demands lacked reasonable legal grounds. For although Austrian copyright governs works published up to 70 years after its composer's death, IMSLP is hosted in Canada, where copyright lasts twenty years less. The Internet Law professor Michael Geist wrote a column for the BBC which suggested UE's actions lacked reasonable legal ground. The International Music Score Library maintained that UE's actions lacked legal justification, and reopened on June 30, 2008.