'Public Domain' means a work is no longer protected by copyright and can be freely distributed.
For an Introduction to copyright and the public domain, see: Copyright Made Simple
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IMSLP follows Canadian copyright laws because the two main IMSLP servers are physically hosted in Canada.
To simplify, Canadian copyright expires 50 years after the death of the composer or other author. Only works first published in countries that are members of the WTO or Berne Convention are subject to copyright in Canada. In most cases this applies retrospectively, unless the work was already public domain in the country where it was first published when either treaty was signed.
Works published before 1923 are public domain in the US, but may not be in Canada and other countries. These US-only public domain works are hosted separately by IMSLP-US, but are searchable from this site.
The copyright expiration year depends on the death year of all parties (composer, publisher, and/or editor).
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Some groups will re-print public domain editions with no new editing and write "copyright 20XX" even though the work does not qualify for copyright protection. This is known as copy-fraud, and despite the claim, the work is in the public domain. The copyright claim can usually be found on the bottom of the first page of a score.
While works in the Canadian public domain that remain protected in the US are allowed for inclusion in the archive, it is possible that scanning and uploading such a work could constitute a violation of the US law for those who reside in the US.
The following tables apply to 2011. The term "author" refers to either the composer, an orchestrator, arranger, or an editor.
| Author's death | Canada, life+50 countries |
United States | EU, Russia, life+70 countries |
Template to be used on IMSLP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| < 1954 | (life+50) |
(life+70) |
None: always public domain | ||
| 1954-1973 | Work: Template:WorkNonPD-EU | ||||
| > 1973 |
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| Author's death | Canada, life+50 countries |
United States | EU, Russia, life+70 countries |
Template to be used on IMSLP | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| < 1954 | unless proof of non-renewal and NIE status is provided‡ |
Template:WorkNonPD-US Template:FileNonPD-US | ||||
| 1954-1973 | unless proof of non-renewal and NIE status is provided‡ |
| ||||
| > 1973 |
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‡(US:Proof of non-renewal and NIE status applies only to works published 1923-1963. All works published 1964-1977 have been renewed
automatically and enjoy a full term of 95 years after first publication. Those published 1978 and later are under copyright for life-plus-70.)
| Year Published | Canada, life+50 countries |
United States | EU, Russia, life+70 countries |
Template to be used on IMSLP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| before 1923 | None: always public domain | |||
| 1923-1953 | File: Template:FileNonPD-US | |||
| 1954-1973 | File: Template:FileNonPD-USandEU | |||
| > 1973 | File: Template:FilenotPD |
There is no copyright in Canada purely in the act of publication itself. Thus any non-edited reprint or re-engraving of a public domain edition is also public domain. The term "edition" or the credit "edited by" has been liberally applied by publishers for items ranging from serious re-arrangements and re-orchestrations of the original work to completely unaltered reprints of older, public domain scores.
Insignificant editorial contributions have no copyright in themselves. Significant ones often do. The editor's contribution to the work must be of a significant and original nature, meeting a "threshold of originality," to qualify for copyright protection. Some examples:
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The EU, and others, have special provisions for a limited copyright term (generally 25 years) for scholarly editions, including critical, urtext, or "scientific" editions (Bärenreiter, etc). It is unlikely that this type of edition, apart from text passages, contains sufficient original material to qualify for copyright status in Canada. However, out of caution, IMSLP voluntarily prohibits the posting of critical or urtext editions published less than 25 years ago, with the exception of those issued by government entities (such as the USSR).
Works first published after the composer's copyright term had expired are known as "posthumous works" and have a limited copyright term in most countries. In the case of long-dead composers, a public performance might count as the first publication for the purpose of determining which works qualify for editio princeps in some countries.
Canada
*Works of composers who died before July 25, 1997 "performed or delivered" during a composer's lifetime or later counts as being "published" on the date of first performance or delivery.
European Union
USA
Reprint editions of publications that are in public domain are not subject to copyright in Canada, the USA, the EU, and most (if not all) of the world. No copyright can be claimed on the scanning of a public domain work regardless of whether the original scanned is in printed or manuscript form.
Rule of the Shorter Term
In Berne signatory countries
This rule basically states that if a work is in the public domain in the country of origin, it is also public domain in any country that signed the Berne Convention. This rule has not been adopted by the USA or Canada.
The European Union applies the Rule of the Shorter Term for works whose country of origin is outside the EU. Thus, a work by an American composer which entered the public domain in the USA, is public domain in the EU. Under the Berne treaty, the Country of Origin is defined as the country of first publication of a given work.
In NAFTA Parties (U.S.A, Canada, Mexico)
North American Free Trade Agreement: Article 1703: National Treatment
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Australia
Any work published in the lifetime of an author who died in 1954 or earlier, is out of copyright. The term for authors who died in 1955 or later is 70 years.
European Union
The 93/98/EC Copyright Directive, consolidated in the 2006/11/EC Directive, harmonized copyright terms for EU countries at life-plus-70 years. It also restored copyright status for works which had entered the public domain in member countries with life-plus-50 terms at the time.
Czech Republic
All Czech government publications are in the public domain. This notably affects Artia/Orbis/SNKLHU/Supraphon, which was a government organization from 1948 to 1989. See the Czech Republic copyright act (file hosted by OSA, Czech author's rights organization).
France
As from January 1, 1995, the basic copyright has a duration of life of the last surviving author +70 years. Anonymous editions enjoy a copyright of 70 years after publication, or if not published, 70 years after creation. There is 30 extra years for authors who 'died in action' (like Jehan Alain). In addition, posthumous works are copyrighted 25 years from the year of publication. However, protection of musical works enjoys special time extension compensating for the war period (WWI and WWII). For composers who died before January 1, 1995, the time protection after death is 78 years and 120 days for works published between January 1, 1921 and December 31, 1947 and 84 years and 272 days for works published until December 31, 1920. This is why none of Ravel’s work is Public Domain in France in 2009 while it is so in many European countries.
[1], [2], [3],[4]
Germany
The basic copyright has a duration of life of the last surviving author +70 years. Anonymous editions enjoy a copyright of 70 years after publication, or if not published, 70 years after creation. Posthumous first-time publications are protected for only 25 years after publication.
As per Article 70 of the German Urheberrechtsgesetz (copyright law), scientific editions, which is to say editions which are produced as a result of scientific analysis (i.e. scholarly or critical editions and urtext), have a copyright length of only publication + 25 years, meaning that all such scientific editions published in Germany before 1983 are in the public domain there. However, arrangements, transcriptions, orchestrations, continuo realizations, and interpretative editions enjoy a full term of protection of life-plus-70 years.
Hungary
Italy
Portugal
Portugal's basic copyright term is only 50 years after death of the last surviving author (even in the case of posthumously published works), or 50 years after publication if no author is identified. Portuguese copyright law reserves a separate article for Translation, arrangement, instrumentation, dramatization, filming and, in general, any transformation of a work but does not clearly specify a copyright protection for these works. (Law text at WIPO)
Russia / USSR
Russian Copyright Laws are fairly complicated and confusing. Basically, works of authors who died before 1943 are in public domain, whereas authors died 1943 or later are protected for life plus 70 years. This is the present interpretation found at Wikipedia. According to the Wikipedia article on the Russian Federation Copyright Law as amended in 2004, the change of term from 50pma to 70pma was not retroactive. The Russian Federation enacted the first post-Soviet copyright law in 1993, establishing a term of life-plus-50 years of the last surviving author, which established protection for authors who died in 1943 and later. The 2004 revisions, which came into force in 2006, were retroactive to the enactment of the original law (1993), making the 1943 date correct. To make matters more confusing, there is another provision of the law (article 1256) which holds that any works published before the November 7, 1917 in the Russian Republic of the Russian Empire and not republished within 30 days of the revolution are not subject to copyright protection. It is not known if works by authors who died later than 1942 which were published before 11/7/1917 are considered to be in this category.
The Copyright Law of Tsarist Russia was very similar to that of Germany, where works were granted a copyright term of life plus 50 years. However, Russia was not a signatory to the Berne Copyright Treaty (1888) and works of Russian composers were protected in Europe only via co-publication agreements between Russian publishers like Jurgenson and Bessel with firms in the West like D. Rahter, Bote & Bock, and Breitkopf & Härtel. With the communist revolution of 1917, this situation changed drastically. Individual copyright was initially abolished along with all other forms of property ownership. This change was disastrous for the copyright status of Russian composers - even those living in the West like Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky. Since all works - whether Soviet or foreign - effectively became the property of the state in the USSR, all Soviet works were held to be public domain in Western countries, even those of expatriate Soviet citizens. In order to comply with treaties to secure Western copyright status for works of Soviet authors, the Soviet goverment finally introduced a limited term of life plus 25 years in the 1928, amended to life plus 15 years in 1961. However, the Soviet state (USSR) completely controlled publication of all works of living or deceased persons on which the state claimed copyright. Although the original works of Soviet composers have been given copyright status elsewhere thanks to several treaties, editions of public domain works issued by Muzyka, the Soviet state music publishing agency, are generally considered to be in the public domain, as they were prepared by state employees working for a government agency, and the copyright owner (the USSR) ceased to exist in late 1991.
United Kingdom
The basic copyright has a duration of life of the last surviving author +70 years. Anonymous editions enjoy a copyright of 70 years after publication, or if not published, 70 years after creation.
The UK has a special law regarding "typographical arrangement" ("typographical arrangement" essentially means re-engraving). A "typographical arrangement" is only copyrighted for the length of publication + 25 years.[6] This would affect many of the originally German publishers who relocated to the UK (ex. Eulenburg).
United States
Currently, the only way to ascertain renewal status for works published before 1950 is to conduct a formal search of the US Copyright Office records in person or pay for a formal search by the copyright office itself. Later records are available online at the US copyright office website. This database indexes only records from 1978, which include the renewals for works first published in 1950. Non-music records from 1923-1977 are indexed at Project Gutenberg.
Restoration for Foreign Works published 1923-1978 Some foreign works from this period that were formerly public domain due to failure to comply with notice and renewal provisions of the US law have been restored to copyright status due to the provisions of the GATT/TRIPS amendments (effective Jan. 1, 1996) provided the work in question was not already public domain in its country of origin. Works that were public domain in their country of origin as of 1 January 1996, are not eligible for restoration of U.S. copyright.
Copyright in recordings consists of two levels:
The length of terms referred to below are for only the sound recording itself. If the musical work is not also public domain, the recording cannot be public domain.
EU
A recording is public domain in the EU 50 years after lawful release.
Canada
A recording copyright lasts for 50 years after the end of the calendar year when the performance was first recorded in its final form.
USA
Recordings were not covered by US Copyright law until 1972. All recordings made before that date - even those published before 1923 - are potentially under copyright until February 15, 2067. This is due to the fact that such recordings might be protected under the common-law copyright and trade statutes of states. Recordings published without the required notice between February 15, 1972 and March 1, 1989 are possibly public domain, especially those issued between 1972 and 1977. After January 1, 1978, a notice omission or error was correctable if application was made to the copyright office within 5 years of the omission or error.
