Classical Musicians & Copyright in the Digital Age: A Preliminary Investigation.

Digital technology has greatly increased access to music, both recordings and scores, protected by copyright. A large body of research addresses intellectual property (IP) issues in the recorded music industry, and Diane Parr Walker discusses how American copyright law adversely affects digital music libraries. However, the use of digitally accessible scores among Canadian classical music professionals remains largely overlooked. This paper provides the background for a research project investigating the relationship between copyright law and Canadian classical musicians in the digital age. The project will use a Canada-wide survey and a series of focus groups to analyze the everyday information-seeking behaviours of classical music professionals and to examine the intellectual property policies that encourage musicians to obey or contravene the law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]