IMSLP Forums

Since the PD in Canada is shorter than the other countries, why aren't there more music publishing houses in Canada than in the other countries, or am I missing something?
Let's say that a piece just became PD in Canada (20 years to go for the US). Instead of waiting 20 years to make reprints and revisions, why not settling in Canada and republish those works, or they wouldn't be able to sell it in countries where the work is still under copyright?

musicnerd wrote:they wouldn't be able to sell it in countries where the work is still under copyright?

Exactly. This is why Dover reprints of early Stravinsky are only available in the US - because that's the only (major) country where they're in the public domain. Which means that they would need to pay the original publisher if they wanted to print it themselves in, say, Canada.

That is interesting. Out of curiosity I went to check on both Amazon.com and Amazon.de (Germany) for the Dover Edition of Stravinsky. And according to what you just said, it shouldn't be available in other countries with long PD status, but the Stravinsky pieces are available in the German version too http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?_ ... ky&x=0&y=0

This raises the question that since scores can be bought directly from the publisher's website (or any other sheet music website), how is copyright enforced if someone in Mexico (100 years PD+) buys online a PD score from Canada?

It's up to the publisher to enforce. Frankly, at that point we cannot be held liable. Amazon should, however, know better...they're probably not extremely copyright-savvy.