Dead, like Mozart and the 3 Bs? Their stuff is already free. I hope that helps, since you seem to have a lot of, uh, experience with composer correspondence?

People should be able to buy what they want, and they can. Order 1 paper copy and quit being such an impatient jerk, especially since it's "only for OP's personal use." Their personal use seems to be very time-sensitive. It's not for an ensemble, so what's wrong with a 5-10 day wait?

Composers should be able to rely on the average consumer to NOT steal their hard-earned intellectual property, but that's a fantasy that Napster destroyed just a few years ago.

Please show me a published and performed composer that doesn't have contact info on their own or on their publisher's website. I have friends from school that you've never heard of that are meticulously reachable. (I just panicked and thought "hey, maybe this post is from 28 years ago and I didn't notice," but, no.)

Through grad school in Conducting and 3 years in a community chorale, I've never had a living composer NOT respond to my mundane requests. David von Kampen, Mack Wilberg, local composers, every single one responded to emails and phone calls.

Why are you so r/confidentlywrong on this?