A work may be out of copyright and freely available abroad but in copyright and strictly controlled by its copyright owner in the UK. Importing a freely available score from abroad is an infringement of the rights of the UK copyright holder.
For example, the IMSLP archive of public domain music scores is hosted in Canada, where the copyright term for music is the creator’s life + 50 years. The UK copyright term is life + 70 years, so music by creators (e.g. Gerald Finzi) who died more than 50 but less than 70 years ago may be available on the archive, but should not be downloaded in the UK.
To protect yourself from any issues:
- If you are able to hire the music you need from inside the UK, do
- If you are hiring music from abroad that is in copyright in the UK check which edition you are hiring, where it originates, and its UK copyright status.
If you are unsure about the copyright status of a particular edition in the UK then contact the Music Publishers Association.
