Author: Kevin Fay
Date: 2020-07-02 01:54
I'll weigh in on this. I'm not an expert clarinet player, merely avocational in a couple of good civic groups. I am, however, a pretty good copyright lawyer; several Fortune-500 companies have paid me a lot of money for legal advice.
Bottom line: Mark Charette is 100% correct.
Copyright is quite literally the right to make a copy. If a sheet of music has not transferred into the public domain, the holder of the copyright can sue you and win if you make a copy without permission, whether it be by a photocopier, a re-engraving, pencil and paper or a picture on your phone.
That's how copyright works; you either have the right to make a copy, or you don't. To get the right, you need permission; to get permission, you generally have to pay for it.
The *only* exception is fair use. If you're copying the whole thing, it isn't, ever. Sorry.
Wholly apart from whether you're violating copyright is the question of whether the holder will bother to sue you. If you're photocopying a page of a part to help a page turn, it's pretty inconceivable that a copyright holder will bother to go after you, even if for a public, paid performance. (One exception - if you're photocopying anything from a rented part to a staged musical for profit, I'd be wary.) It just wouldn't be worth the cost of litigating.
Whether the copyright holder will go after you is the same calculation as driving over the speed limit. At one point or another, we all do it. OTOH, just because it's easy doesn't mean it's legal.
Best,
kjf
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