The regulation of music copyright has become extremely complicated for a number of reasons. To cite a few, there is a patchwork quilt of laws which often overlap and sometimes appear to contradict each other; copyright convention is not universal and questions arise concerning the validity of copyrights in other jurisdictions; some works have been known to come out of copyright only to be reinstated under new legislation. Copyright searching can be tedious and the following list of links is an attempt to make things easier by directing researchers to sites providing the most reliable information.
Music Library Association (MLA)
http://copyright.musiclibraryassoc.org
Frequently asked questions on copyright, fair use, preservation and various other issues related to music copyrights and licensing, edited by the Music Library Association. Website also includes links and bibliography.
Music Copyright Infringement Resource
http://mcir.usc.edu/
The purpose of this site is to "make universally available information about U.S. music copyright infringement cases from the mid-nineteenth century forward." Includes coverage of recent copyright disputes, an overview of the judgments of prior cases, and a glossary of relevant terms.
Public Domain Music
http://www.pdinfo.com/list.php
"Information on this Site is Based Entirely on USA Copyright Laws. Any [score of a] Song or Musical Work Published in 1922 or Earlier is in the Public Domain in the USA."
USA Copyright Law for Sound Recordings
http://www.pdinfo.com/Copyright-Law/Public-Domain-Sound-Recordings.php
No sound-recordings are public domain in the United States due to a tangled complexity of Federal and State law.
International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library)
http://imslp.org
Online score library offering access to over 200,000 scans of public domain scores. N.B. This library consists largely of user-contributed scans; each scan or edition is not necessarily of high scholarly or archival standards. For questions on selecting an edition for study or performance, please consult a music professor or librarian.
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