Grainger (in the US)

[thefrenchhornguy]

If my sources are correct, then it is true that Percy Grainger's works (at least, most of them) are PD in the U.S. Now, if that is true, is it possible to post them on IMSLP but not make them available for download in countries (like Canada) that he is not PD in? I think that if this is possible, as it may or may not be, that waiting until 2012, when he is PD everywhere, is pointless. Why deprive users who have legal access to Grainger's work of his music simply because he is not in the public domain everywhere? Perhaps I don't fully understand the Grainger controversy, but if I am correct, it should be possible to post Grainger on IMSLP for U.S. access.

[daphnis]

First of all, please do not double-post. One forum is plenty. Second of all, once the US Server is back up and running then yes, Grainger will be allowable. Until that time we won't be adding any of his works to the site.

is it possible to post them on IMSLP but not make them available for download in countries (like Canada) that he is not PD in?

Short answer: No. Number one, they can't exist on the site, and number two deals with IP filtering, something we've been opposed to from the start.

[thefrenchhornguy]

Thank you. Your answer is very helpful in clearing up the Grainger controversy for me.

I apologize for the double posting. I realized I had posted on the wrong forum for my topic so I changed it and forgot to delete the old post. Sorry.

Thanks for your help!

[mbalmer]

The simple fact of the matter is that while Grainger was a wonderful composer, he was about as organized as a punch-drunk kitten when it came to keeping his copyrights renewed. There are several works out there (published by Schirmer) that are marked with copyrights prior to 1923, but the problem is that those scores are notoriously difficult to come by.

By and large, the volume of Grainger's music is unobtainable unless you happen to also be in Australia; the University of Melbourne has a fairly substantial collection of his stuff and the National Library of Australia also has quite a few of the original piano editions to a lot of his stuff (and a small chunk of it is also available as poorly-digitized PDFs).

As far as I am aware, many of the full band scores are NOT PD in the US (the ones that R. Mark Rogers has prepared are the ones that come to mind). The original condensed scores are PD (including Lincolnshire Posy) but the newly-prepared full scores are not PD in the US to the best of my knowledge. Someone with more experience on derivative works can probably correct me if I'm wrong.