Looking for pieces that we can sing in our serenade and I am checking some arrangements here however, I am not sure about the copyright.
Can you please let me know how to check which ones are free to use and which is not?
The key factors that determine the copyright status are the following:
the country where you are located, as copyright laws are different in each country;
the copyright of the author(s). This generally depends on the year when author(s) died, although exceptions exist in certain countries (e.g., US for works published in the 20th century) and for specific cases (e.g., "Rule of the shorter term");
the copyright on the sheet music edition that you may use. This is even more garbled as it depends on the publication date in certain countries while it depends on the year when the editor died in other countries, or on the presence of copyrightable contents added by the editor.
In the case of doubt, you may post a specific query on these forums. Only a qualified attorney can provide knowledgeable information to you, however CPDL volunteers are allowed to informally provide their opinion here.
