Re: transcription and copyright

[Erik Sandberg]

On Saturday 24 September 2005 22.10, John Lapeyre wrote:
> This question is perhaps tangentially related to the list.
> I am transcribing music from a recording into lilypond. I
> wonder what possible legal implications of posting my work
> on the net might be. Tabs for guitar of contemporary major
> pop stars are common all over the web, some on long
> established web sites, which leads me to believe no one with
> means is objecting to it. However, I wonder if a nice
> looking score produced by lilypond would cause some
> manager/publisher/recording company to object. I am doing
> the transcription strictly as a study and have zero interest
> in making money from it.

This kind of discussion is more relevant for the Mutopia mailing list; you can 
find it from mutopiaproject.org, I think you can also browse archives. Look 
for messages from Mark Van den Borre.

Basically, the law in most countries say that a work is copyrighted by its 
original author until 70 years after the author's death. This is also true 
for 'derivative works', such as arrangements or transcriptions. So those 
established web sites are probably illegal, if they haven't gained explicit 
permission from the copyright holders.

So, I think the best thing for you would be to attempt to get a permission to 
publish the works.

-- 
Erik