ViperPiper's Bagpipe Tunes

[viperpiper]

Copyright

We take a responsible attitude towards copyright while trying to give pipers the best access to pipe music we can.

It would be the easiest thing in the world for us to publish thousands of pipe tunes on this site taken from books, recordings and transcribed from memory. However we feel that this would be unfair to the composers who try to make a living from selling their work. We do not publish copyrighted materiel unless we have permission to do so.

The tune database is contains tunes from both the “Compositions” section and the “Public Domain” section. Different copyright rules apply.

Compositions

Tunes in the “Compositions” section are posted by the composers (or with express permission from the composers). Unless otherwise stated you can assume that the following license applies ( click for the image below for easy to understand details):



Most important to understand is that the composers still retain the rights to their compositions. Specifically if you are considering using a composition for commercial use you must get the composers permission.

We are beginning to see more published work being made available in this section, as giving a couple of “taster” tunes is a great way to promote a book. We hope this trend continues.


Public Domain

Copyrights eventually expire and the owner has no exclusive rights. Also some composers renounce their copyright and give their music or lyrics to the public, either during their lifetime or at their death. All compositions which are not protected under copyright law are said to be in the public domain. If you can prove that a composition is in the public domain, you can arrange, reproduce, perform, record, or publish it. But you cannot just "know" a song is in the public domain or just "see" the name of the song in a book or on a list. You should use a public domain composition only if you have proof of public domain from a legitimate source.

We make a real effort to ensure tunes in our Public Domain section really are in the public domain. If you see a tune in this section that you know should not be there let us know and it will be removed as soon as possible.

Tune Request/Discussion Forum

In this section we have tried to draw a sensible balance between copyright and the traditional practice of sharing music. Pipe bands will photocopy their entire repertoire, Tutors will get a student to write out a tune, and friends will learn tunes by ear from each other. To put it simply we feel that sharing music is an essential part of the piping culture as long as it does not get out of hand. It is a matter of volume. Thus we restrict the amount of music people can request in this forum. None of the tunes shared between individuals in this section are available to the general public for mass downloading.