Copyright question

[gwyn]

At St Judas Iscariot's Parish Church we use the Celebration Hymnal for Everyone.

We have a Calamus license and occasionally prepare a music sheet for the punter-in-the-pew usually if we are singing something that isn't in the book. I'm sure many parishes do the same.

Suppose next week I prepare a pew music sheet that contains one musical item that isn't in the book but for which I'm covered by Calamus but I want also to include a musical item that is in CHforE (maybe one of the Thankyou Music pieces) but which is not covered by the scope of Calamus. Does the fact that we have 250 copies of CHforE with the hymn in it allow me to reproduce it on a sheet?

Thanks for the lively debates. What did I do before we had this forum?

[musicus]

Suppose next week I prepare a pew music sheet that contains one musical item that isn't in the book but for which I'm covered by Calamus but I want also to include a musical item that is in CHforE (maybe one of the Thankyou Music pieces) but which is not covered by the scope of Calamus. Does the fact that we have 250 copies of CHforE with the hymn in it allow me to reproduce it on a sheet?

Just my opinion: I think common-sense might say it seems OK, but I think copyright law says that it isn't. As ever in these cases, the only safe thing to do is to enquire of the copyright holder.

Perhaps someone else can be more definitive.

Musicus

[dunstan]

I rarely use printed sheets. I once enquired of KTM about using something in the way you discuss and, because the numbers of copies were small, they gave permission without any charge (but required a printed acknowledgement). They replied to my email within 1/2 a day. I get the impression that the people in their copyright department have a lot of discretion over terms etc., so if you ask a question along the lines of "as I already have the copies in CFE on which royalties have been paid, would there be any further royalty payment due: what would the wording of an acknowledgement be?" then you might get the answer you want.

My experience with OUP over a bit of Vaughan Williams wasn't so happy - they wanted quite a bit of money so I used a different bit of music which was out of copyright. Just be a bit careful of so called "public domain" sources - quite a lot of music is out of copyright in North America (e.g. pre 1923 Vaughan Williams) but in copyright in GB and Europe.