IMSLP Forums

I arrange music and am wondering if its legal to sell music that I have arranged that is under the public domain status. Do I need a license or what?

-Philip Jones

It would probably help you to put your own arrangements under licenses, but if the original music is out of copyright in your country then you can do whatever you want with it - you certainly don't need a license for that. Public domain means that the public owns it

What kind of license would I want to use on my arrangements?

-Philip Jones

Well, the options range from putting it under a full copyright (meaning that you would hold every right on your work - for any form of distribution) to one of the Creative Commons licenses, which are generally less restrictive. It really depends on what you want people to be able to do with your arrangements, so it's hard for me to give a specific recommendation. What did you have in mind?

Well, I would want people to be able to perform it without permission at least. I also probably wouldn't want it copied or redistributed without permission.

The copying and redistributing part will probably prevent you from using any Creative Commons licenses - all of them allow distribution under certain conditions. Even the most restrictive license allows free distribution as long as the author is attributed properly, it is not sold, and the original is not modified in any way. I think that your best bet would be to put a full copyright notice on the work and specify that people are allowed to perform it freely, but other forms of distribution require permission in writing.