Modeling itself after Project Gutenberg, this volunteer project aims to make copyright-free musical scores available to everyone. Although copyright on a score expires 70 years after the composer's death, music publishers retain copyright on their typeset editions. Thus, the only legal way to copy this music is to write it out or typeset it yourself and allow others to make copies. This is precisely what contributors to Mutopia have done. All music at the site has been typeset using GNU Lilypond and is available for download as .pdf, PostScript, or Lilypond .ly files. MIDI files and preview images of the scores are also provided. Visitors may browse the collection by a number of options, including composer, instrument, style, and last updated. Some sections are still somewhat thin, but interested users will certainly want to pay the site a visit and monitor its future development.
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