Question of copyright
After arranging a piece by J. S. Bach and publishing it on MuseScore for public use, I recently arranged another piece, this time by a living composer, and would like to publish it as well. But would I then break any copyright laws? I have sent an email to the composer and asked for permission, but haven't received any reply as of yet. What should I do? I would really like to share the score with everybody and not just keep it private.
By the way, I live in Norway, and I'm not sure what kind of copyright laws are in place here. And whereas I have the notion that publishing this score publicly would be illegal, I see lots of scores on MuseScore without any copyright notice or copyright symbol, scores that are often transcribed from music by a living composer. So I'm confused.
Comments
Without the explicit permission of the copyright holder you cannot publish an arrangement. But then again IANAL...
In reply to Without the explicit… by Jojo-Schmitz
Then what about all those other people that I mentioned, who are doing just that? Are they all breaking the law, yet still decide to publish their scores publicly? Also, if I publish my score privately (so that only I can see the score), do I still break copyright laws? A more thorough answer please.
In reply to Then what about all those… by Pawel Matusiak
Why would it be relevant how others do it? If they don't have the copyright owner's permission, they are breaking the law (and the copyright holder can sue them), it that do have it they don't.
Uploading, but setting to private is not publishing, so no copyright law broken.
Often the scores of copyrighted music on musescore.com show up then get taken down afterwards when the copyright owner complains, because it is indeed illegal to publish copyrighted music without permission.
However, as a result of the acquisition by Ultimate Guitar, MuseScore now has licensing agreements with a number of publishers, so at least some copyrighted music can be uploaded legally. I have no idea how to know what music this might apply to. See for example http://blog.musescore.com/post/171048786232/ultimate-guitar-welcomes-mu…