When you’re publishing music on Score Exchange you need to make sure that you’re not breaching any copyright rules or laws. This is a general guide to how copyright works – what is and isn’t allowed. This isn’t legal advice, so if you have any doubts at all, make sure you get professional advice.
General principles of copyright
A work that is in copyright means that the person who owns the copyright to it is entitled to benefit from their work. Something that is not in copyright is said to be in the ‘public domain’. In general you are free to use anything in the Public Domain for your own purpose.
If you want to make use of any work that is covered by the copyright of anyone else, then you need to get permission first. Copyright is an automatic right – the act of creating something means that copyright exists – anything that you create from scratch is covered by your copyright. If you ever need to prove that you created something that that might be a different matter, but copyright exists as soon as you create something.
Copyright lasts for 70 years after death. In some countries the time period is less than 70 years, but Score Exchange is based in the UK, so we follow the UK laws where it’s 70 years.
Applying copyright general principles to composing and music
If the original composer is still alive, or died less than 70 years ago their copyright still applies so you would need to get permission to use their work. e.g. the theme tune from the Star Wars film written by John Williams.
An original work is in the public domain, if the original creator died more 70 years ago, e.g. original work by Mozart or Beethoven. You are free to use their work as you wish.
However…
…any new arrangement is covered by the arranger’s copyright until 70 years after their death. This means that you should always try to track down a transcription of an original work before starting new arrangements.
Example: I arrange Beethoven’s 5th symphony for a piano in a Blues style (!). You can’t use my new piano arrangement without permission until 70 years after I die, but you can use Beethoven’s original work.
Also…
… new editions are also covered by the copyright of the editor. An edition is an original work, with different mark-ups or other minor corrections.
Example: You have a printed score of a Violin concerto by J. S. Bach. There’s a good chance that the person who prepared the score for printing has added bowing, fingering and phrasing markings to the music. This makes it a new edition that is under their copyright. The original music is in the public domain, but the new additions are not, unless the editor died over 70 years ago.
How to get permission to use copyrighted works
The current copyright owner needs to issue with a license to use their work. This might be as simple as just asking, but in most cases you will need to pay some sort of license fee. Often the difficult part is finding out who the copyright owner is.
- A lot of music is managed by major publishing companies. Some of them provide handy online databases that you can search for copyrighted works. e.g: http://uk.warnerchappell.com/search-by-writer/
- Wikipedia has a lot of useful information, but bear in mind that it’s very easy for anyone to edit Wikipedia.
- If you’re a member of any professional musicians organisation then they are also a good place to get advice.
Common errors that we’ve experienced on Score Exchange
I didn’t breach any copyright because I wrote my version by ear!
Wrong! Just because you didn’t see the original work, doesn’t mean that you are allowed to use it. You are probably not allowed to arrange your favourite film theme tunes ‘by ear’ without first getting permission.I don’t know who the composer is!
That doesn’t matter – it’s your responsibility to make sure that the work you are using is in the public domain, before using it.
The composer died more than 50 years ago!
Score Exchange is in the UK. Your country might have a shorter term for copyright, but you still can’t publish it on Score Exchange until 70 years have passed.
But no one will mind!
It might be the case that no one will notice if you use copyrighted work without permission, but that’s not the point of a law. If you could get away with murder, does that make it OK?
