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Are there copyright implications when using sheet music to create a derivative work of visual art?

Asked by sdeutsch (4263points) May 21st, 2011

I have a few drawings like this, where I’ve basically taken a small section of a piece of sheet music, made it bigger, and embellished it a bit – creating a sort of “illuminated sheet music” type thing.

I’m considering selling art prints of them, and I’m wondering what, if any, copyright implications there are to that. I’m obviously not recording or duplicating the actual piece of music, but you can definitely tell what song it is, and you might be able to tell what arrangement I based it on, if you dug deep enough.

Does anyone know how the typesetting and design of a piece of sheet music is copyrighted, and whether using a small portion of it in this way would violate that copyright?

I’ll probably end up talking to a lawyer before I sell anything, but I wanted to do a little research first, and I haven’t found much in the “sheet music as art” department. Any insight would be appreciated!

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