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Photocopying For Awkward Page Turns


Peter Clark

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Vox’s point about editor’s copyright lasting as long as a composer’s is, I’m sure, correct in essence, but I was given to understand by the nice people at MCPS (now PRS for Music) that this would apply where the editor had provided the first “scholarly or performing version”; id est, one which was the first publication of a performable edition of the piece. Much early music falls into this category, but if such a piece appeared in a second publication in a new typesetting, graphic rights only would apply to that case, unless there was a substantial difference from the previous edition. Simply altering a few notes won’t do and one cannot assume someone else’s copyright in this way. Whether Emery’s edition of Bach would thus qualify is an interesting and possibly debatable proposition, assuming that actual graphic rights of his edition have “timed out”. Incidentally, do not the graphic rights now last 35 and not 25 years as hitherto?

 

There has been some excellent advice from many board members in this thread, but there is no doubt that it is the ultimate Pandora’s Box for performing musicians and, if one is in any unsure, contacting PRS for Music will provide the right answer.

 

http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

 

David Harrison

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  • 4 weeks later...
CD Sheet Music www.cdsheetmusic.com has a good lot of music available, which is reproduced from what must be out-of-copyright plates. The editions are often poor, but they're good enough for reference when researching something new to learn, or the occasional last-minute request. And you can make as many prints as you like.

Not all is out of copyright in the UK, though. For example there is music by Dupré on one of the organ Cds.

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Not all is out of copyright in the UK, though. For example there is music by Dupré on one of the organ Cds.

 

I wonder how long it will be before copyright law becomes internationally standardised given the proliferation of easily downloadable music (CPDL and others) which cross national boundaries. I have a vague recollection of a Canadian website run on similar lines which was forced to close down for publishing music which was out of copyright there (50 years after composer's death), but still in copyright in most other places, despite being completely legal under local laws. (Mexico has recently increased its copyright duration from 75 to 100 years: between Canada and Mexico there is a discrepancy of a working lifetime!)

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I have a vague recollection of a Canadian website run on similar lines which was forced to close down for publishing music which was out of copyright there (50 years after composer's death), but still in copyright in most other places, despite being completely legal under local laws.

Correct, but it's back up and running again:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page

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