Following hot on the heels of my Diaspora article comes news of a fairly impressive project which aims to make classical music free and available to all.

Downloadable music is a contentious subject in our modern times of illegal downloads, but this is exactly what the folks at Musopen.org are aiming for, except they are aiming to make their downloads legal.
Currently even if you buy music composed by a genius such as Tchaikovsky which is firmly in the public domain, the work of the musicians as published artists may be protected by copyright.
This means that you cannot then use their recording as you please, on youtube, private video or to broadcast without paying them royalties or obtaining permission.
There is nothing wrong with this as learning a musical instrument to a standard where you can gain employment through your talents deserves reward, however as Tchaikovsky himself gains no reward for his original compositions it all becomes a morally grey area.

What the folks at Musopen.org are attempting to do is to hire one of the well known orchestras to record such classics, and then to release those recordings free of binding copyright and royalties, free to download by anyone.

Utilising the Kickstarter website they have been pledged more than their target amount of $11000 and they will be passed this collected sum of money on the 14th September, so we should see some wonderful things start to happen thereafter.
You can still contribute if you wish, in fact you probably should, they are a worthy cause and will be giving a unique, selfless and significant product back to the global community in return for your pledge.

A truly selfless and community driven project. Bravo guys and gals, a truly virtuoso endeavour!