The WIMA Has Closed Down

UPDATE: The WIMA is back online

The Werner Icking Music Archive, the oldest site where it was possible to download free sheet music has closed down. This is very bad news for culture. The site had thousands of scores, including many rarities, made by many of volunteers and music lovers all over the world, not to mention the growing number of contemporary composers who decided to put on WIMA for free their works. Unlike IMSLP.org where it is possible to download PDFs made of scans from old sheet music, at times difficult to read, scores on WIMA were well done, because made with modern music notation software, it had actually been founded as a showcase for scores made with MusicTex, but soon it started to accept scores made with other programs such as Finale, Sibelius, or others. Along with the PDF with the music, many times it was possible to download the source file, so that it could be modified (having capabilities and the program that created it obviously), for instance, on a score for violin and piano, the violin part could be transposed by a tone in order to be played with B flat instruments such as the clarinet.
The site was hosted by The Department of Computer Science of the University of Aarhus, in Denmark that decided to cut it because the scores downloaded daily by the thousands caused a very high load on University's servers.
The WIMA was founded by Werner Icking, who passed away in 2001; the current mantainer is Christian Mondrup who is checking some possible options to reopen the site. I really hope he can succeed. the WIMA was a very important piece for all musicians on the net.