IMSLP Forums

I am working on a documentary. Can I use music (not the scores, but the mp3 files) from this site in my film? Have the uploaders donated the music to the public domain? Are all the MP3s on this site public domain in the US? (If not, ow can I tell if an MP3 on the site is public domain?)

If the answers are yes, is there something I can print out to document that these files are PD? How should I list the site in the credits?

Thanks so much,

Kate

None of the audio files on this site are public domain in the USA, due to the complete madness about audio recordings under US law. In both Canada and the EU, recordings published more than 50 years ago are public domain, with the added wrinkle that the performers' performances may be protected in Canada for 50 years after the death of the last-surviving named performer. Most of the items here are made available under one of the Creative Commons licenses. If your film is commercial in nature - meaning if anyone connected with its production and distribution is paid - you are free to use the items released under the plain-vanilla "Creative Commons Attribution 3.0" only. Otherwise, you will need to contact the copyright owner of the recording in question - which is usually the performer, and most certainly the party listed in the "Publisher" field on the file-entry for the recording itself. For example, we have a fair number of recordings released by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston under a non-commercial Creative Commons license. You would have to contact them to use one of those recordings as they are the publisher and copyright owner of the sound recording (even though the musical works recorded are public domain).