Copyright questions
Hi, gang!!!
Despite the version of MuseScore you are using, despite the kind of music you are making with MuseScore, despite the source you are using to make scores with MuseScore, despite the fact you will not earn some money with the score itself...
If the music piece was made with valid and current Copyright rights (directly from the composer and/or some printed paper editor)... Simple words: WE CAN NOT TO PUBLIC IT WITHOUT A PHYSICAL AND VALID PERMISSION DIRECTLY FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. Period!!!
Example: If I find some free PDF file with the full score of some Vivaldi music work, and I transcribe it to a paper with MuseScore, and that original score had some valid copyright (typical situation from Internet files)... I CAN NOT TO PUBLIC MY HANDMADE TRANSCRIPTION WITHOUT A VALID PERMISSION FROM THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHT OWNER. Even the fact Vivaldi is dead a lot of years ago... The original paper editor copyrights COULD BE STILL VALID.
That's the main reason because I don't use to upload material to MuseScore.com, because I don't have valid permissions from the copyright owners of the typical scores I have and use here.
I wrote this... Just in case.
Blessings and Greetings from Chile!!!
JUAN
Comments
IANAL, but:
Vivaldi surely is out of copyright. Transscribing and publish would be legal, that isn't a 1-to-1 identical copy.
Photocopying a printed score though may indeed be illegal.
Not everything that has the word 'copyright' printed really is copyrighted...
Publishing may be legal on musescore.com, as that have agreements in place with several large publishers. And they will deal with copyright claims should they come up, worst case is that your score gets taken down.