copyright question?

Question

I'm not an expert on copyright law at all, and I'm curious about whether or not the following situations violate copyright law for published works.

[in each case, the setting for use is directing choir in a public school]

1) I own enough copies of the work for all of my students to use, but I would prefer to make and distribute photocopies to my students. I will destroy all photocopies following the performance.

2) I own one copy of a work which is P.O.P. (permanently out of print) by the publisher. Can I make enough copies for my students to use?

3) Can I borrow the work from another school's library?

4) If a work has recently entered public domain, can I photocopy a published version of the music? (as in, a piece was once published by Carl Fischer, and I bought a single copy from them years ago. The piece recently entered public domain...can I reproduce that single copy I have?

Thanks!!

I should mention, this is in the United States.

Answer 1

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter7/7-b.html

Hopefully this will help answer all of your questions.

Answer 2

I was a band director for over 20 years, here are my interpretations.

1. Yes, but make sure you destroy the copies. It's rare that files are checked for copies, but if for some reason yours are you don't want to have them.

2. Yes you can, but, first you need to obtain a letter from the publisher giving you permission. Often times music stores will help you with this.

3. You can. Is it legal, no.

4. If the music was an original work that entered public domain you can freely use it. Careful though because if it's an arrangement, that arrangement may not have entered public domain. If has a seperate copyright.

I by no means am an authority on this. If you have question you can address them to copyright.gov.

Answer 3

The biggest issue is "for profit". Since you're not engaged in a commercial project there's no real problem. You can photocopy for your own use, especially since you own a class set of originals.