Having read through the Trinity diploma syllabus, an original copy of each piece is required for the exam, and failure to do so results in disqualification.

I have no idea what the basis for this is, since it seems to fly in the face of all notions of public domain. For example, the pieces I plan to do for my diploma are all in the public domain, and with the exception of one piece I got all the scores from the IMSLP, yet I will be forced to shell out about 50 pounds for music which I already legally own.

I'm not sure if this has been discussed here before, but does anyone else see a problem with this?

Ben

I don't know enough about copyright to answer this properly, but I can tell you what I've learned from being an arranger.

The first arrangement I did was Debussy's 'L'apres-midi' and I got the score from IMSLP. However, when I showed it to some people at my university, one of them mentioned copyright and asked which edition I used, because although the copyright of the specific edition on IMSLP had ran out, the piece itself had been republished in a new edition, which brings it back into copyright.

I don't know if this should mean that even so, you are legally allowed to use the edition on IMSLP. I do know that IMSLP tend to use the oldest editions they can possibly find which may now have been republished and my guess is that there is some loophole which allows them to do this, but which would not apply to individual use of the score?

Hopefully someone will know a lot more about this than I do...

Sorry if this is controversial but it seems a little odd to me that someone with the interest and commitment to be considering a diploma exam doesn't prefer to own published copies of music where available.

I would phone the Trinity Board.

What do they mean by 'original' ?

If a piece is in the public domain then Trinity can not/should not have any problem with you using a copy of the piece published more than 25 years ago i.e. one that does not infringe the publisher's separate copyright.

This can be an actual copy, photocopy, a donwloaded copy (which is often a scanned-in copy) or a newly type set copy that someone (including yourself) has done for free (and then posted on the web or not).

And I think it's perfectly reasonable for even diploma level students to want to avoid unnecessary costs
- I use lots of legal downloads and type set my own copies of ones that I can't find.

Intellectual property rights expire. It is an important concept in copyright law. And when they do that work is freely available to all the public.

And a new publication of a piece does not bring the actual piece 'back into copyright'. It simply gives the publisher 25 years copyright protection against someone copying that specific printing of the piece.

What do you do if you purchase a piece of music directly from a composer who supplies it as a pdf?

That's just ridiculous. I did a diploma and I almost always use the IMSLP scores for anything in public domain. Copyright infringement is one thing, but why is it a negative thing to prefer to save money where legally possible?

For the OP: Is there a way you could borrow hard copies of the pieces you have from IMSLP from your teacher (I've usually done this) or perhaps the library?

The piece did not cone back into copyright, because the composer has been dead for 70 years. However, the new edition in terms of layout, typography and any editing decisions are under copyright. The old, IMSLP edition is still out of copyright.

Agreed - but do you need TWO copies? One for the examiners and one for the accompanist.

I think that expecting people to buy more than one copy would be rather unreasonable.
For instruments where you might not be playing from memory this could add up to three copies.....

I find it quite difficult to read music downloaded from the Petrucci library. It is useful though to be able to download pieces just to 'play with' and having access to these pieces is useful in deciding what music to purchase. I would chose a published edition before a download as I feel that the published edition is so much clearer to read.

For example, I found I was able to download Chaminade's Automne from the Petrucci Library but the copy I purchased from Ebay was so much easier to read.

Just to confuse matters - what if you bought a piece of music for an iPad, say, and wanted to take that into the exam? It's a legally owned copy, after all; just one directly downloaded to the device. Perhaps increasing use of gadgets like iPads, and the capacity to perfectly legally download music (as the OP has) will make the exam boards have to rethink this rule.

The composer retains his/her copyright in the work (or the publisher does if s/he has assigned copyright to a publisher, which is what I had to do to get a paper published in a historical journal).

Properly speaking, you should buy as many copies as you're likely to need.

Havng said that:

(i) some composers will sell you a downloadable score with licence to print off as many copies as you happen to need (you could ask anyway and see what answer you get);
(ii) Check the Music Publishers' Association Code of Practice on fair usage at mpaonline.org. You can photocopy a page to avoid an awkward page turn, but can't photocopy the whole of a copyright work.

P4

In response to Sbhoa, I see no link between my doing a diploma and the need to spend money on printed music. Copyright laws protect works (including any editing) for 70 years after death, and after that time any money spent simply goes to publishers far removed from the composer.

In any case, living in China I was unable to get hold of printed editions for two works that I am playing (Janacek and Scriabin) so I had no choice but to use IMSLP scores. I am therefore being forced to stump up money for new scores of pieces I have already memorized when I go back to England.

That seems such an unnecessary expense as you have memorised the pieces. As has been suggested I would contact Trinity to ask them what they mean by 'original' as music downloaded from the Petrucci library could potentially deemed as 'original'.

I did say where available and I do realise that in some parts of the world it can be extremely difficult to get hold of music.