Re: old music score question

On 24 Nov 1998, Beverly Stafford <beverlyst[_at_]nethost.multnomah.lib.or.us> wrote:
>
> I have a question pertaining to music scores: our library has a score
> published in 1868, a Liszt transcription of an operatic piece. It is,
> as you might guess, falling apart and brittle. Can we photocopy this
> score and use the photocopy to circulate rather than the original?
> It is out of print and I haven't found it in any other collection.

Except for one question below, my general response:

     By all means, exercise the time-honored freedom to copy!!!

Make one, ten, twenty, or hundred copies and circulate them as soon as you can. Any work that is published before January 1, 1923 at 12:00am is free for anyone to copy. This is for U.S. only.

> Preferring to err on the side of caution...

True. The question is: Who owns the copy of the score? If your library owns it, is a public institution, does not require anyone to sign any kind of agreement or contract when they enter your building, and is open to the public including the people who are not patrons, and does not have any policy that restricts access to the copy of the score; then, you can copy the score as many as you want.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> Received on Thu Nov 26 1998 - 00:18:27 GMT