 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: quintet_op115
Date: 2009-08-17 08:34
First of all, I am not trying to advertise for this site, and it wouldn't make any sense to for it to be spam because the website does not sell anything.
If you have not known, there is a website (imslp.org) with a comprehensive sheet music collection which is otherwordly and it is all FREE. I wish to know if there are any members on this website who have heard of IMSLP or been to it, and I would like you to voice your opinion about this phenomenon.
Post Edited (2009-08-17 08:37)
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-08-17 09:17
It's on my list of sites-to-visit when I'm looking for a piece of sheet music, along with WIMA and Mutopia.
I consider these sites essential for the musical world. Many may go the publisher route, but what if a publisher decides that there's no market any longer for an out-of-print piece and simply lets it slip into oblivion?
--
Ben
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-08-17 22:17
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> I just wish all the old stuff weren't copywritten.
>
>
> Thanks Sonny Bono & Mickey Mouse......
Yeah, I'm not crazy about the Sonny Bono Act, either--it unfairly gives a lot of older works a longer copyright term than current works will receive when all is said and done. I don't have a problem with Stravinsky's works being under copyright (he died in the early 1970s), but Gershwin and Ravel have been dead long enough that their works would be public domain under the current Life+70 yrs. regime were it not for the special treatment the Sonny Bono Act gives those 1920s-1930s works.
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Author: Curinfinwe
Date: 2009-08-17 22:25
What's the Sonny Bono act? And I thought copyright was life + 50 years? Or is that just in Canada?
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2009-08-18 01:42
Canada = life+50
US = life+70
They are different. Interestingly, I was in Quebec this weekend and was listening to the radio heads talk about how Canada's life+50 law is under scrutiny right now. I guess the Canadian parliament is working on intellectual property rights. Anyway, a little potpourri...
Post Edited (2009-08-18 01:43)
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-08-18 02:24
The Sonny Bono Act extended the normal copyright term in the U.S. from Life+50 to Life+70 (to match copyright protection in the EU), but it also extended the term of works first published prior to 1978 to 95 years from first publication (previously it was 75). Prior to 1978, U.S. copyrights had a fixed term of 28 years, renewable to 56.
The upshot of this is that works first published in the 1920s having copyrights that would otherwise have expired by now have been extended another 20 years.
Chances are the Canadians will adopt Life+70, too, eventually. They just haven't gotten around to it. This is an area of the law where international harmonization of laws is the norm (even here in the U.S.A.).
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Author: Curinfinwe
Date: 2009-08-18 14:12
I've noticed on IMSLP that there's a few scores I should be able to access (but they're under copyright revision), under Canadian copyright law, and it's kind of annoying because I think I remember reading somewhere on the site that it's Canadian based. If that's so, then wouldn't those scores be available? I can't recall specific ones right now.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2009-08-18 14:23
Curinfinwe wrote:
> If that's so, then wouldn't those scores be
> available?
Not necessarily - most countries have bi-lateral agreements to respect the copyrights granted in other countries. If the material was printed under a Canadian copyright, you'd probably be correct, but I'll wager few of the pieces you're looking for were printed under a Canadian copyright.
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38a.pdf has a good summary of the reciprocity agreements between the US and other countries.
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Author: quintet_op115
Date: 2009-08-18 17:13
mrn wrote:
The upshot of this is that works first published in the 1920s having copyrights that would otherwise have expired by now have been extended another 20 years.
How could a fellow Texan like this?
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-08-18 17:34
quintet_op115 wrote:
> mrn wrote:
> The upshot of this is that works first published in the 1920s
> having copyrights that would otherwise have expired by now have
> been extended another 20 years.
>
> How could a fellow Texan like this?
I don't. I think you misunderstood what I said. The word "upshot" simply means the outcome or conclusion of something (which could be bad or good). In this case, I think it's unfair that certain 20th century works are given what I think amounts to preferential treatment by this act.
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Author: davyd
Date: 2009-08-19 13:19
I don't know how I feel about IMSLP. It's a wonderful resource for material that would be difficult to get any other way, at least on my limited budget.
But I can't shake the feeling that I'm doing something horribly terribly wrong by using it. How can something like this possibly be legal?
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-08-19 13:47
davyd wrote:
> But I can't shake the feeling that I'm doing something horribly
> terribly wrong by using it. How can something like this
> possibly be legal?
What makes you think it isn't?
--
Ben
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-08-19 14:19
davyd wrote:
> But I can't shake the feeling that I'm doing something
> horribly
> terribly wrong by using it. How can something like this
> possibly be legal?
Because all copyrights eventually expire, and once they do you are free to copy the works all you want, without permission. This is so fundamental, it's even in the U.S. Constitution, Article I, sec. 8, paragraph 8, which says that Congress has the power....
"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."
Lots of people rely on this. Whenever you buy a Kalmus reprint, for example, you are buying a photocopy of some other publisher's score that has fallen into the public domain because the copyright has expired.
However, you do have to keep in mind that, unless you live in Canada where IMSLP is hosted, not everything on IMSLP is necessarily public domain in your country--however, they do try to indicate which works are not public domain in the US or the EU by marking the link "Non-PD US" or "Non-PD EU."
For example, Bartok's works are public domain in Canada because Bartok died in 1945 (and the copyright term is Life+50), but most of Bartok's works are still under copyright in the US (where the term for these works is 95 years from first publication, assuming they were first published in 1923 or later).
On the other hand, there are works that are public domain in the US, but which are still under copyright in Canada, such as many of Stravinsky's early works (including the Three Pieces for Clarinet). They are under copyright in Canada because Stravinsky died in 1971, but they are public domain in the US because they were first published pre-1923 (and thus, their 56-year terms expired prior to January 1, 1978, when the Copyright Act of 1976 would have extended their term to 75 years). Thus, you won't find any of Stravinsky's works on IMSLP, even though many of Stravinsky's best loved works are public domain in the US.
Speaking of Stravinsky, he was a clever guy where copyright was concerned. He made subsequent revised versions of many of his early works. Those revised versions are still under copyright in the US, even though the original versions (like the 1913 Rite of Spring) are not.
Post Edited (2009-08-19 14:40)
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Author: bill28099
Date: 2009-08-19 14:41
The IMSLP is very legal and in fact went through a fairly long shut down because Universal Editions threatened to sue the owner for violations of European Union copyright laws. Worst of all Universal Editions was attempting to impose EU law upon a Canadian entity in a Canadian court and of course they hired a firm of traitorous greedy Canadian lawyers to do their dirty work. The IMSLP's owner did not have the resources to defend himself so shut down the site to avoid litigation.
I was very happy to see the site back up and running last year not only because of the great resource it is but also to know that Canadian sovereignty and law had prevailed.
A great teacher gives you answers to questions
you don't even know you should ask.
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