Other methods of musical data storage?

joaquin.gray · Post by **joaquin.gray** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:12 pm

I'm curious if the file format of scores has any legal implication.. in other words, if you capture the still-in-copyright score of someone like Ravel in a format similar to HTML (there are many of these) or MIDI, will it still count as infringement? Is it fair use? If anyone knows about this, it would be very informational if you could expound on such ideas!

Best, Joaquin

Post by **Carolus** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:49 pm

In a word, the answer is: "yes" - it would still be a copyright infringement. Ravel's a bad example for most of the world, for he died in 1937 and his work is free in most countries with life-plus-70 terms. The works published after 1922 are still protected in the USA, though.

Vivaldi · Post by **Vivaldi** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:06 am

So does this mean that similar to performances, one would have to obtain permission from the composer, publisher or whoever holds the copyright to the music compositions before making a MIDI file of that particular work?