MuseScore BVBA, or, should I be worrying?

• Jul 25, 2020 - 23:06

I found that new PRs use a different copyright header than before.

Then I found that there’s a new version of the CLA (which I didn’t sign… the rights from the old CLA don’t transfer automatically to the new CLA, only Werner can sublicence the code to MuseScore BVBA though so it’s in effect the same). The word diff shows it’s just a name replacement.

Old: http://web.archive.org/web/20181114141756/https://musescore.org/en/cla
or even http://web.archive.org/web/20150324065541/http://musescore.org:80/en/cla
New: http://web.archive.org/web/20190830200923/https://musescore.org/en/cla

I’m more wary to grant pretty unlimited rights to a company than to a private person though. A company must operate in a way to make business and obtain winnings. The CLA also doesn’t contain a reciprocating promise that MuseScore will always be available as Open Source, like the Fiduciary Licence Agreement of FSF Europe does. (I understand that MuseScore.com operators need the CLA so they don’t need to open-source the proprietary Android and iPhone äpps, but there’s no contractual promise of keeping the scorewriter Open Source, only verbal promises. Now I don’t have any indication why I shouldn’t believe the verbal promise… but it’s a company that, by law, is supposed to operate to obtain more money than they give out.)

Then I went out to find out more about MuseScore BVBA, which features prominently in the footnotes on this site and others. Also, perhaps, how its connection to UG is implemented legally.

First, I found this worrying thing:

   Vennootschapsnaam MUSESCORE
   Vennootschapsvorm Besloten vennootschap met beperkte aansprakelijkheid
   Ondernemingsnummer 0835.424.871
   Adres Octaaf Soudanstraat, 22 , 9051, Gent
   [20]bekijk op kaart
   [21]We vonden 21 andere ondernemingsnummers op dit adres

Wow, 21 others? Do tell!

   [20]MOGALI Comm.V 9051 ST-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2020-05-27 BE0518970586
   [21]ROENLES Comm.V 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2020-01-21 BE0741399407
   [22]LUCTOR BELTING BELGIE NV 9100 SINT-NIKLAAS laatste publ. 2019-12-24 BE0430605071
   [23]PLUGIN BVBA 9040 SINT-AMANDSBERG laatste publ. 2019-11-13 BE0672687971
   [24]VASTGOEDFONDS MECHELEN BEHEER BVBA 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2019-07-31 BE0875992845
   [25]LE CARBONE NV 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2019-01-04 BE0401872285
   [26]MUSESCORE BVBA 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2018-07-18 BE0835424871
   [27]REESINGHE INVEST Comm.V 8300 KNOKKE-HEIST laatste publ. 2018-03-12 BE0473461552
   [28]EURO CROSSROADS PROPERTY DEVELOPERS, AFGEKORT : ECPD NV 9320 EREMBODEGEM laatste publ. 2017-12-29
   BE0472331503
   [29]JENO BVBA 9051 GENT laatste publ. 2016-12-28 BE0668411756
   [30]HIGH STREET INVEST BVBA 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2016-11-03 BE0554835248
   [31]CRYA BVBA 2060 6 ANTWERPEN laatste publ. 2016-09-06 BE0550858941
   [32]COVERCO INVEST BVBA 8300 KNOKKE-HEIST laatste publ. 2016-04-01 BE0876154280
   [33]BASOK BVBA 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2016-04-01 BE0821775090
   [34]NOREVA BE BVBA 9051 GENT laatste publ. 2016-02-02 BE0647650984
   [35]LIGER TRADING SERVICES Comm.V 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2015-09-10 BE0636874383
   [36]HS13 Comm.V 9051 GENT laatste publ. 2015-07-30 BE0634656647
   [37]REYNAERT DE MONTAGNE Comm.V 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2015-02-06 BE0578907282
   [38]NYX5 Comm.V 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2014-06-25 BE0553846838
   [39]VANDERZANDEN Comm.V 9051 ST-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2013-12-24 BE0542963240
   [40]TECHNIEKO Comm.V 9060 ZELZATE laatste publ. 2009-05-19 BE0895264072
   [41]KJARON Comm.V 9051 SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM laatste publ. 2008-02-28 BE0895836273

Woah, seems it’s a letterbox-only company. Very trustworthy indeed! (I thought until today they actually had a tiny office at that location.)

It goes on:

Jaarrekeningen

   einde boekjaar doc. type        eigen vermogen winst     schulden
   2018-12-31     Jaarrekening (N) € 158,533      € 267,670 € 697,743
   2017-06-30     Jaarrekening (N) € 124,114      € 141,668 € 288,402
   2016-06-30     Jaarrekening (N) € 17,741       € 28,234  € 331,770
   2015-06-30     Jaarrekening (N) € 9,871        € -3,966  € 53,468
   2014-06-30     Jaarrekening (N) € 17,063       € -23,189 € 41,280
   2013-06-30     Jaarrekening (N) € 41,511       € 1,211   € 29,427
   2012-06-30     Jaarrekening (N) € 20,998       € -18,177 € 19,062

If schulden means the same in Dutch as in German (“debt”), I’m surprised MuseScore BVBA even still exists in the first place.

Thomas Bonte, Nicolas Froment and Werner Schweer resigned from the company board in 2017, the same time when Pavels Klimenko from Riga was added, making the latter the only manager.

OK, so, apparently, MuseScore BVBA now belongs wholly to a person whom I haven’t seen mentioned here or on .com anywhere yet, and is amassing an insanely high debt, if I interpret this correctly.

Also, where’s Werner? He’s still the rights holder from the CLA from all people who didn’t sign the new one.

Oh, and, count me in in the list of people not signing the new one. For now.

There’s also no imprint linked in the footer of this site (independent of how all /legal/ ones go to .com there ought to be one; according to some lawyer’s FAQ, the requirements for imprints in Belgium are even more than in Germany)…

Questions above questions…

Comments

• Jul 30, 2020 - 18:28

MuseScore BVBA most certainly has been for real and still is. It was the Belgian company offering the initial support for musescore.com and the founders.
The mentioned address is a real address and I believe the one from the accountant at registration time (It's about a 10min drive away from where the small Belgian office used to be). It is not uncommon in Belgium to have small companies (in the BVBA or GCV/CommV) placed at the accountants address to ensure all related government and tax forms end up there automatically.

This company has now (2017) been acquired by the mother company that also own UG (not by UG itself). I believe that to be the reason for that "Pavels Klimenko" to show up from then on.

It is also not uncommon for companies that live under umbrella companies (such as MuseScore now lives under the WSM Group) to not have any booked profits and/or amass debt in the books. It's an accountant trick to minimize the taxes due and shift any profits through to the mother company.

Whilst official clarification would be nice, so far the provided company data does not trigger alarm bells in my mind and seems consistent with the history of MuseScore as I know it.

What indeed would be good is that the CLA again explicitly mentions a guarantee on the Open Source side of the software and its contributions.

Reply

• Jul 30, 2020 - 19:32

OK, thanks for the information. I don’t know all that much about real-life accounting and taxes and tricks.

(Note that the address on file changed, it used to be different before 2017.)

I’ll not worry, but not sign the new CLA right now either. Thank you!

Reply

• Jul 30, 2020 - 23:02

I signed the one licencing to Werner, not the one licencing to MuseScore BVBA.

Of course, Werner can sublicence to MuseScore BVBA, but he’d need to do that for all new contributions from people who signed the old CLA. (That can probably be automated in a contract between these two, though.)

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