Copyright law regarding the protection of printed music is very strict. As a general rule the copying of written or printed musical works other than by hand, is forbidden. So electronically copying, scanning, downloading and printing this material without permission is not on. Further, our CLA photocopying licence agreement does not cover printed music at present.

Copyright protection is applied during the composer’s lifetime and for 70 years thereafter.   Where the composer has been dead for more than 70 years, printed editions of his/her works are protected for 25 years from the date of publication.

It is not all bad news however,  there are concessions which allow limited copying by schools in the circumstances detailed below.

• Where bona fide students or teachers require short extracts (i.e. less than a performable unit of music) for study and research only.    Copying whole works or movements is forbidden.

• Where written permission has been obtained from the copyright owner.

• Where the composer has been dead for more than 70 years and the printed edition of that composer’s work is more than 25 years old

• Where the music and/or lyrics have been copied by hand onto a blackboard or smartboard and copied down by pupils in the course of instruction, though reprographic copies may not then be made from their hand – written copies.

• Where Standard Grade concessions apply. (See Standard Grade Music Permissions S1-S4)

• Where 1% or less is copied by the school in any one quarter in any calendar year.

• Where an enlarged musical score is made for a partially-sighted pupil, provided that the score used is logged and named for that specific pupil.

• Where a licence to copy certain modern hymns and religious songs has been obtained from CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing (Europe) Ltd).

• Where concessions granted by the Music Publishers’ Association (MPA) apply to members’ works.