It is my understanding such a use of photocopying is legal BUT you must destroy the copies after use, not archive them for future use.

Hi, Joshua.

 

I recently completed a paper on copyright issues for the ensemble director, so I feel pretty well versed at the moment....  This is actually not a fair use under the copyright statute or the fair use guidelines published by Congress. 

 

In particular, the second argument you made - keep the original safe so that you needn't replace it - is not allowed.  Part of the formula for establishing the price of a piece of choral music is the likelyhood that it will need to be replaced after a certain number of uses.  Photocopying to replace lost or damaged copies is NOT acceptable.

 

That said, I've also made copies to avoid having the choir have to stand there holding the book, and I'm sure many people regularly do the same....

 

Tom Tropp

Northwestern University.

Hello Joshua and all:

 

As a publisher, what I do is offer the owner of a collection (and we have many volumes of Italian madrigals in the Gaudia collection) a low rate to reproduce copies from their own volume. Some customers like to have me make the copies, and in that case, I am happy to charge them the standard choral rate (same as a retail price, less a 10% discount, usually). If they want to make their own copies, the price is generally about half of the price of a retail copy. Of this amount, the editor gets half according to our contract (Where the publisher sells the right to reproduce copies, but does not produce them itself, the composer/editor will receive 50% of the income of the sale of those rights). This 50% amount also applies to sales of music rights for synchonization, or foreign reprint rights. So you see, the editor actually does better in many cases if the end user photocopies the material himself.

In all cases where I grant permission  to reproduce, the end user must have "Photocopied by Permission" at the bottom of the first page of music"  All of this is pretty standard stuff.

 

Steven L. Schaffner

Schaffner Publishing

Contact the publisher of the piece and ask to reproduce. They may work out a nominal fee for you to reproduce. Please contact me if you need publisher contact info.

 

Thanks,

Dave Buckeyne

dbuckey(a)jwpepper.com

Backing up a few posts to Tom Tropp's statement that providing photocopies for use in order to keep the printed copies from wearing out is not allowed, because the pricing of the music factors in the expectation that it will wear out and need to be replaced at some point. I have some doubts that this is really a consideration for most publishers (don't know for a fact), but the law regarding making copies to AVOID purchase is clear.

 

Given the outrageously high prices of some of the most sought-after choral works (which, of course, publishers blame on the proliferation of contraband copies), I think there is some moral and ethical justification (though not technically legal) to regard purchases of such scores as a part of a permanent collection, which one does everything possible to protect and preserve. Although I insist on the appropriate published scores for every performer, I must admit to providing photocopies of portions or complete works on occasion, especially if heavy editing was necessary to clarify part assignments, pronunciation guides, translations, choreography instructions, etc, or even just for convenience or ease of use by the performers. Likewise, providing photocopied pages to facilitate keyboard or orchestral page turns is often really necessary if a work is going to be performed at all. These infractions are not likely to be litigated, because although they don't slavishly observe the letter of the law, they clearly exemplify the intent of the law. Avoiding the need to purchase REPLACEMENT copies seems (to me, but apparently not to the "law") to be a different issue than avoiding purchase of sufficient copies in the first place. Few composers seem to object to this way of handling the issue, and few conductors can claim scrupulous observance of the letter of the law. But publishers may be another story. Fortunately, self-publishing composers and several online repertoire resources are beginning to treat the issue with creativity and rationality.

 

At the other end of the spectrum is a choral director of my acquaintance who doesn't seem to have a real published copy of anything in his entire choral library, including folders for over 100 singers. Or there is the voice teacher who has one "archival" copy of every Broadway show ever written, and "generously" provides copies for all of her voice students. Come to think of it, the choral director I mentioned was once one of her students! 

 

Charles Q. Sullivan(/div>

I just went through this a little over a week ago. My choir is going to the International Choral Festival in Missoula, Montana this summer, and we didn't feel like hauling 2 different collections along for 3 fairly short pieces. One publisher Charged a fee of $18.45 to make 25 copies of the one song from their collection, and the other wanted $50.00 for 2. Our budget is extremely limited, and since the chances of us using that particular collection again is slim, I just removed the 2 selections from the collection, and will tape them back in when we return. We use the first (and definitely larger) collection frequently, so I bit the bullet and paid that one. Over the years I have discovered that publishers differ in what they ask in these situations. It's wise to be covered.