A question about intellectual copyright.

[StephenCampbell]

Okay, so here's the story. I took an 8 minute track from the soundtrack of a movie, which was playing with stringed instruments and band instruments, and wrote out solo piano sheet music for it. It was a very rough transcription, and notation wise i'm sure it's not very similar to the original sheet music in any way. However, if played as notated, on a piano, it sounds pretty much like the original music. But I achieved that same result using (i'm almost certain) totally different notation, time signatures, note values, etc. I didn't have any sheet music for it, so I just wrote down entirely by ear, something that would make it sound more or less like the music when played on the piano.

The owners of the original music never published real sheet music for it.

Is it illegal for me to sell my transcribed music online? It has my name on it as the arranger, and the composers name as the composer.

Thanks.

 

[maflynn]

Without their permission yes.

You basically transcribed their music and now want to make money off of that. Not really an evil thing, but you need to get their permission for it.

There may be reasons why they never published sheet music to sell and if you try to sell it, that will be counter to their wishes for their music.

edit:
Perhaps you should engage this dialog with an IP lawyer and see what they say, at the very least they may get the ball rolling in seeking permission from the composer.

BTW, its not the best idea to rely on legal advice from an internet forum It could cost you lots of money if you do something based on what you see here and then get sued.