IMSLP Forums

What is the reason for the lack of Kern on the site? From checking his dates, it looks like his music, at least the early musicals, would be eligible for upload.

Since he died in 1945, things he wrote by himself are free in Canada. The trouble in cases like his is that there is usually a lyricist involved, whose work cannot be uploaded if they died after 1961. There's also the USA factor that anything first published after 1922 is likely to be protected there (and thus subject to the notorious [TB] block). At any rate, there should be a number of things eligible - even with those restrictions in mind.

That's right, I completely forgot about the lyricist element. I checked the dates for several of his major lyricists, and that does complicates things. The pre-1923 works could be uploaded on the U.S. server if the did not meet the Canadian requirements, correct?

Yes, they can be uploaded to the USA server. However, that is not an automatic process. You will need to either send the files to an admin with privileges there, or contact Jonathan to get an ID and password. It's not at all the same as a regular IMSLP upload.

I assume that Jerome Kern's (1885-1945) solo compositions would now be in the public domain in the EU.
Following the example of Gershwin's The Man I Love piano solo arrangement would, for example, piano solo arrangements of his songs which excluded the lyrics written by others be acceptable on the IMSLP?
E.g. Would piano solo arrangements of The Way You Look Tonight and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes be acceptable, esp. if they were Jerome Kern's own arrangements?

There had been a piano arrangement of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes on the Musescore.com site but it was taken down leaving the message "This score is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Music Sales Ltd." Perhaps it was a recent copyrighted arrangement.

As long as there is no text by someone dead less than 50 years apart from names, titles and short phrases (like instructions), it should be fine.