The Copyright Police

Question: "Why can't I just have a copy of that?"

Answer: Why? Because it is against the law! This is difficult for some people to understand. You can just freely copy most printed sheet music.

Question: "But what about the marching band show? You make hundreds of copies of that stuff. "

Answer: The reason is because we actually own the copyright to the show for one year. That allows us to make as many copies as we need. Didn't you ever wonder why all the copies mysteriously disappear after the season is over.

Question: "We have copies of our concert music. Is that illegal. If it is I am going to turn Mr. Brady in. We need to get him!"

Answer: Yes, it is legal to make one copy for educational purposes but you must have an original to back up each copy. You can not just make copies to avoid buying extra parts.

Question: "This is stupid. Why can't we just do it anyway?"

Answer: Besides being illegal, it is immoral too! How can we expect composers to write new music if all of their older music is being given away. The copying of music is detrimental to the creation of new music. This is the biggest reason to not copy printed music or download illegal copies of music. We played a wonderful new piece of music in class today. I don't know if the composer would have even considered writing this piece if he thought it would just be given away.

Question: "Did you know most modern composers allow legal downloads of their music? Why?"

Answer: They want you hear their music and pass it along. They only make money if their music is good enough for you or your directors to want to buy it.

The point of all of this...Don't copy music just to avoid buying it. Most of it is cheap and the pieces that are not cheap are usually well worth it.