# Performance rights to sheet music



## Matthew R. Rodwell (Feb 11, 2008)

I am looking to use Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in a film but I do not have the money to purchase rights to use a recording already produced. I would like to buy the score from Sheet Music Plus and smart scan it into Finale, is this something I can legally do? How to I check to see if performance rights are public domain or if someone currently holds those rights? It probably would be alot easier if the composer wasnt German :/


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## aeneas (Feb 11, 2008)

Orf died 'recently'. I don't know about copyright law in Germany, but it would surprise me this piece to be Public Domain. If it's not, then there's no other way but licensing it, of course - you can't use it without permission, even if you play it yourself. Another option would be - fake it! It's a piece quite easy to fake, just do it smartly... :wink:


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## Daryl (Feb 12, 2008)

Carmina Burana won't be out of Copyright until 2032, at the earliest (depending on where you live).

D


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## Nickie Fønshauge (Feb 12, 2008)

The scores at Sheet Music Plus all seem to be legitimate editions so I don't see a problem with scanning them into Finale. Scanning into Finale is no different then step entering the notes, where your eyes do the scanning instead of hard/software. It's what you do with the scanned (and highly edited; SmartScan isn't all that smart) non-PD score, that can easily lead you into copyright infringements. You can't publish your Finale score or use an audio rendering commercially without paying a license fee.

In the EU scores don't enter Public Domain until 70 years after the (last surviving in case of more than one composer) composer died - in certain cases even later.


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## PolarBear (Feb 12, 2008)

I heard that getting a license to rendition it yourself or use it with your isntruments could be cheaper than licensing a finished recording. Dunno much about copyright fees though.

All the best,
PolarBear


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