A question about MuseScore that I saw brought up

[MichelRE]

I saw some mentions of this, but was wondering if it was just random rumour-mongering or if it had some basis in truth:

Is MuseScore funded by Russian money?

While others may not agree with me, my political leanings make it impossible for me to use a product that is developed with Russian money.

[Harpsichordmaker]

Here is said Musescore company is (or was) based in Russia: https://musescore.org/en/node/301153

In 2021 there were rumours about Audacity having become a spyware: viewtopic.php?t=765

That’s all I know.

[Fred G. Unn]

Well, Ultimate Guitar was certainly originally Russian. They even famously argued that their "site violated no laws because its headquarters were in Russia, and the site’s practices complied with Russian laws."
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/tech ... 1ecom.html

Ultimate Guitar purchased MuseScore in 2018, so I assume Russian money has been involved since then anyway:
https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/ultim ... musescore/

Looks like MuseGroup is headquartered in Cyprus now.

[NeeraWM]

While others may not agree with me, my political leanings make it impossible for me to use a product that is developed with Russian money.

However difficult that may be, I always try to keep politics away from the music.

Let's try to reverse the coin for a moment: would anyone here stop using Dorico or Sibelius (both based in the UK) if the UK started to massacre an ethnic minority inside of their territory or if they invaded, say, Ireland or France?
Imagine this happening in the middle of a big project with a tight deadline. Would you suddenly XML your project away to... no idea what...

This is just to widen a bit the scope because, as an Italian, my public school education kept all of us in the shadow of the fact that, in 1915, Italy invaded a sovereign state (Austria) with the pretext of "freeing" the Italians living in Veneto & Friuli, the true goal being expansion. My country, back then, did the same thing Russia did in 2022, invading with the pretext of "freeing" their people from oppression.
Still, we have not stopped eating pizza and pasta, right?

Of course, everyone should do what they feel right to do.

[benwiggy]

Is MuseScore funded by Russian money?

The choice of Cyprus as headquarters for the company is interesting, after reading this article…

https://www.icij.org/investigations/cyp ... an-wealth/

[JJP]

Let's try to reverse the coin for a moment: would anyone here stop using Dorico or Sibelius (both based in the UK) if the UK started to massacre an ethnic minority inside of their territory or if they invaded, say, Ireland or France?

Oh, this is hard to read living in a country that currently refuses to rule out a military invasion of Greenland, Panama, and even Canada.

It is difficult to choose companies based on ideology. There are corporations that have direct ties to, perhaps controlled by, or directly funding evil regimes. There are corporations that are independent, yet are located in unfortunate places. There are also independent corporations that cynically wield excessive influence or power within governments for their own ends, not caring about the citizens. Some of these companies have also limited our ability to choose the products we use.

It’s a complex, thorny set of questions; but questions we should continue to ask. The answers may not always be clear, but we are better for asking and then acting according to our conscience where we can.

[Magister Tekton]

The choice of Cyprus as headquarters for the company is interesting, after reading this article…

Before the war in Ukraine, a number of European software companies opened shop in St. Petersburg due to the availability of "cost-effective" young programmers and developers. After the war started and sanctions, many shops translated to Cyprus due to easy Visa regulations and IP controls....and to escape conscription of their staffers.

Several of the engineering and graphics programs I use in my civilian (non-music) life did so. Some were German companies or German money apparently encouraged in the Merkel Years to use Russia over Indian IT resouces.

My naive understanding is Musescore is German/EU, not Russian.

[mburns]

Oh, this is hard to read living in a country that currently refuses to rule out a military invasion of Greenland, Panama, and even Canada.

Yup, and a lot of people are looking to migrate, at least partially, from American and American-owned services, myself included. That said, I think a lot more of that is related to data privacy and data sovereignty issues (and the inherent link between that and the US surveillance state) than just "is from bad place".

Let's try to reverse the coin for a moment: would anyone here stop using Dorico or Sibelius (both based in the UK) if the UK started to massacre an ethnic minority inside of their territory or if they invaded, say, Ireland or France?
Imagine this happening in the middle of a big project with a tight deadline. Would you suddenly XML your project away to... no idea what...

This actually a really good example, though I'm not sure I agree with the whole sentiment. Unfortunately it's not hypothetical: the UK's regime of human rights violations against its trans population is utterly horrific. However, I would still use Dorico because other than tax money, none of what Dorico does materially supports those actions (which could be contrasted with US Tech companies). I'm not going to punish Dorico for the UK government's atrocities. To me, it's not about keeping politics away from the music, but being specific about where those two things intersect.

Personally I stopped using Musescore just because I found lilypond a lot better for what I want to do and how I work. However, I think I would have transitioned away from it after Muse Group's purchase of Hal Leonard (https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/muse- ... l-leonard/). I think that kind of move is really bad for the industry as a whole, particularly since it was enabled by private equity, and it makes concerned about the future of Musescore; they've been too many cases of companies making a software, even open-source software, gaining widespread adoption, and then really screwing it's users. It's exactly the difficulty of changing project, learning a new software, loosing access to your previous work etc. that enables corporate predatory behaviour. The Musescore team have done some fantastic work, but personally I'm still very skeptical about Muse Group.