Copyright Laws and Photocopies
Found in: About Business, Accompaniment
Kerry V., Australia
I have had some very excited adult students who have realized that they can play other accompaniment pieces besides that in the SM books. They have been able to find music sheets with the appropriate chords for their level and have photocopied these sheets for each other outside my studio, knowing that I cannot have anything to do with them. Can I teach or instruct them from these sheets or am I to completely avoid any such material?
Cindy B., Illinois
I’ve chosen to respect the copyright laws by asking my students to keep “illegal” copies to themselves. I’m not that blunt, but I am very clear. Anything a student wants included in their lesson time needs to be in its published form.
Here is some information from the book Copyright: The Complete Guide for Music Educators:
“One of the exclusive rights granted to copyright owners is ‘the right to prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted work.’ A derivative work is any adaptation of a copyrighted work. A motion picture or television drama adapted from a novel or a short story is a derivative work. . .
“If the arrangements are of music that is old enough to be in the public domain, then it’s legal, unless, of course, the arranger has gotten permission from the copyright holder. According to the Act of 1976 and a subsequent Copyright Term Extension Act passed in 1998, “Works published between 1923 and 1963 have an initial 28 year term and must be renewed for an additional 67 year term for a total of 95 years.
“Works published between 1964 and 1977 have the extra 67 yrs. automatically added without renewal by the copyright holder.
“Works published after 1977 have a term of the life of the author plus 70 yrs, or in the case of works with multiple authors, 70 yrs after the death of the last surviving author. This brings the U.S. in line with most European countries which have copyright terms of life plus 70 years.
“Works published before 1923 are public domain.”
I do not know what the copyright laws are in countries other than the United States.