Reasonable Use?

What constitutes reasonable use for copyright? I am working on playing a duet and rather than photocopy the music so that the other guy could practice, I bought a 2nd book.

Am I conscientious or stupid?

You are noble.

Well copying upto one complete chapter from a book, one article from a journal or upto 5% of a publication, is usually considered fair use...

nongdam said:

You are noble.

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In any case I agree with nongdam

I'm a librarian and I know for a fact that most people photocopy our sheet music if there is only the one book - especially choral stuff. To be honest I normally turn a blind eye.

Having said that, the musician side of me thanks you for being such an honest and thoughtful person and helping people make a living.

My feeling on it; make a copy for you and your partner to use is fair.
Copying it and distributing to a ukulele club is probably not a fair use.

You are acting in your own best interest. By purchasing a second copy, you're doing your part to keep the market strong for music books. That means, long term, you'll have more music books to choose from in the future. We don't want the authors and publishers to give up, do we?

Also: Karma. Someday you might have a book or a CD to sell.

Good job.

For those of us who Uke and VW, there is a book called a Bentley Manual. It makes any music book seem cheap by comparison. I called the publisher about making a copy of the pages I am using when working on the van. I was told that copyright laws allow the purchaser to make a copy of any amount of the book as many times as needed for the purchaser of the book. Using a copy of a song from a book which I have purchased for my own use does not violate copyright laws. Letting someone else use my book also does not violate copyright laws. If I am going to change keys, I make a copy and write my chord changes on the sheet, not in my book. Making a copy to even give to one friend is a copyright violation. No, it is not being a hair-splitter. There are some situations where you cannot find another book to purchase. It is not going around the law, it is understanding what can and cannot be done with your own property.

Thanks CraftedCow. A little bit confusing, but I think I understand what you are saying. I could have made a copy for myself and lent the book to the other player (my son). I will probably do something like that in the future - but I think in this case that it was a good purchase regardless. My son is becoming more and more interested in classical performance on uke, and this will give him more pieces to learn and work on. He is pushing me to learn the baritone part for "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", and I think that with the book and CD he will find more pieces that he wants to work on. All to the good. The book, by the way, is Rob McKillop's Bach book, and I want to support what he is doing anyway.

Tsani said:

Thanks CraftedCow. A little bit confusing, but I think I understand what you are saying. I could have made a copy for myself and lent the book to the other player (my son). I will probably do something like that in the future - but I think in this case that it was a good purchase regardless. My son is becoming more and more interested in classical performance on uke, and this will give him more pieces to learn and work on. He is pushing me to learn the baritone part for "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", and I think that with the book and CD he will find more pieces that he wants to work on. All to the good. The book, by the way, is Rob McKillop's Bach book, and I want to support what he is doing anyway.

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Actually no... You can't make a copy for yourself and give the original to someone else. At least not within the law. That is still one purchase for two users of the copyright material.

allanr said:

Actually no... You can't make a copy for yourself and give the original to someone else. At least not within the law. That is still one purchase for two users of the copyright material.

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"..still one purchase for two users of the copyright material" seems to imply that two people can't even share a single book on a music stand while playing together - one book, two users.