Copyright & responsible use

This page is a plain-language explanation of how the archive handles copyright, not a formal legal policy.

Much of the sheet music catalogued here is still under active copyright, held by the original publisher; it remains their work, and in many cases their income. A great deal of it is also orphaned: out of print for decades, from a publisher that has since been absorbed, renamed or wound up, with no realistic way left to ask anyone for permission. Preserving that material is much of why this archive exists.

Cataloguing is not publishing. A catalog entry records that a piece existed: its title, composer, arranger, publisher and year. Those are facts about a publication, they're public on this site, and they're what most of the archive consists of.

Scans are never made public. Uploading a scan here is depositing a copy into a restricted archive, not putting it online. A restricted scan is visible only to the person who uploaded it, site moderators, anyone that uploader has specifically granted access to, and approved researchers, and researcher access is granted by hand, not on request. There is no public link, no listing that exposes the file, and nothing a search engine can reach. The only scans anyone can freely open are ones marked public domain. See how roles work for what each of those means.

What restricted access is for. Research, reference and study, reading a piece to know what it is, what it contains, and how it was scored. It is not permission to print parts for your ensemble, to perform or record the work, to redistribute the file, or to avoid buying something still in print. If a piece is still sold, buy it: the archive is here for the material you can no longer get, not the material you'd rather not pay for.

If you're contributing a scan: you don't need to prove you own the rights, for orphaned material nobody can. What matters is that you came by it honestly (it's yours, your programme's, or something you were given), that you describe it accurately, and that you're not uploading something you know you shouldn't. Marking a work "public domain" is a real legal claim rather than a convenience setting, so leave it unchecked whenever you're unsure; unchecked simply means the scan stays restricted.

This archive is run at no charge and at a loss. It sells nothing, runs no advertising, and takes no payment for access.