Importance of this forum

[JimL]

I just wanted to offer my opinion that, due to the massive influx of downloads, this forum has, perhaps unwittingly, become a major archive of the world's art music, and not just in a Romantic style.

[thalbergmad]

Hear Hear Sir.

Our grandchildren will thank us for this.

Thal

[JimL]

Truly, it is living up to a potential none of us foresaw in the days of the old Raff Forum.  It has become an academic resource, not just a discussion board for the 'niche market'.

[JimL]

I just wanted to give some feedback on top of my previous comments: This website is rapidly becoming probably THE go-to source for academicians and lay persons alike who are interested in art music from all over the world that lies outside of "the canon".  It also provides access to sheet music, technical support and critical analysis.  In short, we should all take a momentary step back and give kudos to Mark and Alan for putting this together, Eric and Colin for their invaluable contributions, particularly in the recent addition of the works catalogue department, and all the rest of us who contribute what they can.  Ladies (if any) and gentlemen - time to step back and take a bow!  OK, everybody, as you were...

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Jim. It's very kind of you to say so.

[Alan Howe]

Indeed, Jim. Very kind. And thanks go to all of our on-line community, of course!

[Amphissa]

The media industry in the U.S. has shut down MegaUpload and also forced a couple of other services out of business. The effort to pass legislation in the U.S. that would make it much easier for the media industry to shut down any Internet service (from individual web pages to large hosting services and entire ISPs) with NO legal hoops to go through, did not pass in the Congress this past session. But a former U.S. Senator has recently been hired to head up the efforts of the media industry to enact similar legislation in the nest congressional session. With his clout, and especially if Obama is not re-elected, it could pass.

This ex-Senator, now the head of the media industry initiative, has explicitly named several file sharing services that they will go after next. Mediafire was one of  the services he explicitly named as a target.

It is important to note that the vast majority of stuff on MegaUpload was just your average stuff shared by average folks. Not copyright violation stuff, not child porn, not illegal in any way. It even included business file sharing. Tough luck for those folks. Everything is now lost to those businesses and individuals.

It will be quite awhile before the courts rule in this case, but in the meanwhile, I think it would be wise to consider our options here at UC. If the media industry go after Mediafire and shut it down, all of the music in UC Downloads will be inaccessible by anyone.

It has been suggested before that at least one and preferably several archival collections be created to preserve the music resource that we've created here. I've made an effort to download most everything -- until recent months when work issues have limited my time here. I imagine several others have been downloafding everything as well.

What I have not tackled is the task of cataloging the collection, but that is an obvious next step -- to create a searchable catalog that contains consistent archival records of the collection. I have the expertise to do it. I just don't have the time to do it at present. (I'm planning to retire in the next few years and might find more time on my hands then :~)

This has all been said before. I'm just reminding that the times we live in do not offer us security for our music collection. The more of us who make an effort to store copies, the better our chances of preserving the musical record of these Unsung Composers.

In addition, I think it wise to retain a backup file of all the names and email addresses of contributors to the Download section. These are the people who could help rebuild the collection at a new site, if needed. I suppose only Mark and Alan would have access to those records.

[fr8nks]

"What I have not tackled is the task of cataloging the collection, but that is an obvious next step -- to create a searchable catalog that contains consistent archival records of the collection. I have the expertise to do it. I just don't have the time to do it at present. (I'm planning to retire in the next few years and might find more time on my hands then :~)"

We are in need of a master catalogue. If you perform a search now and the composer has only one entry, you will be directed to the download. But in many circumstances, if the composer has more than one uploads, the search fails to find them all. I believe the administrators are aware of this problem because when I questioned them about it, they said it must be a glitch in the programming. If you need specific examples, I would be glad to supply them.

[Mark Thomas]

I've done nothing, I'll be quite frank, about moving forward with the idea of cataloguing and putting in a safe repository all the files which have been uploaded by members here. The reason, quite simply, is that I just do not have the time to do it, or organise the doing of it, myself. If someone else has the time and the enthusiasm to take on the task then that would be great and I'd certainly be happy to co-operate in any way to make UC accommodate any changes which are required.

I'd be surprised if there is anything which has been made available here over the last couple of years which hasn't been downloaded by any current member, so in that sense, the recordings are "safe", if not easily accessible immediately.

As for the search function, the only "glitch" in the software of which I'm aware is that it is hierarchical. In other words, if you search in the Downloads board, the only results which you get are from the Downloads board. Because of that I've advised on many occasions that the best thing to do when searching is always to search from the home page. That said, it's not bespoke software and I'm no programmer, so functions are limited by what's built in.

[Dundonnell]

Just to add that I have downloaded all the orchestral music from 1900 uploaded for members of this site.

These works are stored both on my pc and on an external hard drive and are catalogued alphabetically. I have already re-uploaded a number of damaged or invalid files for members