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Mark M., New York

I appreciate your statement, and as far as I know everything you said is absolutely correct. It’s important to supplement what you said with some more information.

When someone owns a copyright on a work, they get to decide the circumstances in which it is okay for copies to be made, and nothing requires them to hold out for payment and/or to require any specific agreements/permissions to be explicitly sought by anyone. If they choose, it is completely okay for them to make their works available for others’ use at no cost, and this can happen in various ways. Examples:

-They could choose to put the work directly into the public domain — in which case they would no longer even own the copyright.

-They could choose to use some other kind of formal mechanism such as one of the various Creative Commons licenses whose specifications fall somewhere between a public domain declaration and reserving all rights.

-They could make a very simple statement such as “here it is on my website and anyone can use it for free.”

Not all copyrighted works (whether arrangement or original pieces, whether based on public domain works or otherwise, whether holiday/seasonal or otherwise) will be found along with explicit evidence of these kinds of circumstances. But some will. These situations honor what you said re: “unless you can demonstrate and provide some evidence.”

My guess is that the act of publishing such an arrangement on a website without a declaration of reserved rights or payments required is probably considered to be tantamount to a declaration that the work may be freely used by any who come across it even if there is no explicit statement granting permission. Such situations would not meet your requirement of demonstrating and providing evidence, so such situations should not be shared here in this group, but I think that anyone who comes across those situations should feel free to use those pieces without fear of legal repercussion.

Ian B., California

This is definitely a broader conversation worth having among music teachers. I still try to wrap my head around the gray areas of “fair use” where education is concerned (https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107). I should mention a fantastic resource for any music teacher regarding copyright and licensing can be found on the NAfME website here: https://nafme.org/my-classroom/copyright/

It is, of course, aimed at understanding US Copyright law, but specific to music educators. I highly recommend.

Neil Moore

Stephen has provided a photo of the hard copy of these pieces that I am sure he purchased (in other words, he has a legal version). Having said that, please make sure that you are not distributing unauthorized copies. The BNL version of “I Have A Little Dreidel” is definitely not in Public Domain, and it is likely that the other arrangements in this publication are almost certainly Copyrighted as well.

And here’s a refresher on the posted Guidelines regarding this Facebook Group:

• It’s not lawful to post, or share in any way, any video, audio or written reproductions of any music that is Copyright protected (unless you can provide documented evidence that you have permission to do so). It is solely your responsibility to thoroughly and accurately research this prior to posting any such material.

Neil Moore

Hi Stephen, regarding your first question, going through all of the files in the ‘Files’ section on our FB page, I can see nothing there that would be a questionable Copyright issue.

With regard to the URL above, the statement “no attempt has been made to reproduce the originals”, here’s SM’s position on the matter.

If these are pieces of music that are Copyrighted, but the arranger has permission to create an arrangement, and on his website he gives public permission to use that arrangement, then there would be no problem.

However, the Internet is mindbogglingly full of people using Copyrighted material without permission, nor the authority to grant permission to others to use that material.

It is most certainly not SM’s responsibility to vet and/or moderate and/or curate these postings. So, if you are going to post something on the SM platform (including here on our FB page), then it is 100% your responsibility to demonstrate that you have the right to do so.

In the absence of being able to do that, we, as an organization, cannot take the risk of being seen to freely and willingly use our platform as a means of sharing music that has Copyright protection.

So, it’s a difficult position really. Publishers rarely take legal action against individual teachers who are sharing music that is Copyright protected. However, we (SM), as a far larger organization with a much larger public profile, run an extraordinary risk if we were to do so. As such, we have to walk a very fine line, oftentimes being uncertain as to the exact legality of things. Copyright and Fair Use laws (which are actually becoming far more lenient, flexible and democratic) are still a very, very grey area, with Statute law being somewhat vague and there being very little case law to draw on as a reference.

The bottom line for us – unless we’re sure that it’s OK to use, we won’t.

Stephen R., California

That Bell and Co site seems legitimate and has simple material for beginning students beyond what is offered in the SM program.

This was written at the bottom of the Christmas section:

“Please Note: All the song charts on this site are my own interpretation of each song, in a format aimed at teaching guitarists and musicians in general. No attempt has been made to copy or reproduce the artist’s or publisher’s sheet music for the song, if it does exist. It is to be used for Informational and Educational Purposes Only. For a comprehensive representation of the songs, we recommend you buy the sheet music. If you like playing these songs, we encourage you to support the artists and buy their music.”

Mark M., New York

Be careful. I took a quick look at the site. All they say is they’ve prepared stuff and it’s free to use. While they may mention songwriters’ names, I see no mention of copyrights or permissions. And: not all the songs are public domain, e.g., Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town. Just because they say they aren’t charging you for it doesn’t mean they have the right to create or share something.

Neil Moore

With regard to the statement that has been included at the bottom of the Christmas section, this does not, in any way, constitute Copyright permission. At best it is a well-meaning and well-intentioned comment, but entirely different than actual, lawful permission. Many music educators still believe that if they are copying and sharing content, under the guise of ‘educational purposes’, that it is okay to make some form of copy. But this is simply inaccurate. Based mainly on what has been said so far, I’m not saying that the website is distributing content unlawfully, I am merely saying that the statement itself does not constitute authorization. 🙂

Also Stephen, one final comment, I am certainly not trying to single you out here. I’m spending time going into detail because I think this is an organization-wide issue. Most certainly, it is a music-education-culture issue. Copyright violation is so profoundly rampant that it has become the norm and accepted, and clearly to the professional, personal and financial detriment of so many composers and artists.

So, you bringing this up in the first place has just given us all the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the conversation as a whole. Without doubt, this is a topic to address for the benefit of every SM Teacher, so thank you for providing the opportunity to discuss it in more detail. 🙏