I posted about this at PW but didn't get any responses, I'm wondering if anyone here (esp. pique and Mary Anna) have any thoughts.

The tl;dr version: I think I found a whole slew of score books that are copyright violations on Amazon. Could I be right about that? Or, how would anyone know?

The long version:
While looking for the score for Rainsong by George Winston, I came across these books of his music, all released by the same person, Melissa Berliner, on practically the same date, with similar or the same collection of scores in each. For publisher it says “independently published.”

https://www.amazon.com/s?i=str...=dp_byline_sr_book_1

This looks super suspicious to me, for one thing because GW is still alive and his work is still under copyright. But also, or esp. because, for a long time, George Winston resisted releasing sheet music of his compositions. And then when he finally started releasing scores, they are always described as "authorized by GW" or "official versions." Also, he only publishes with Hal Leonard, and they are pretty fierce protectors of their licensed materials. Here are GW's HL books:

https://www.halleonard.com/sea...D=Softcover#products


This was bugging me so I did some more poking around, and I can see a similar set of books of Einaudi scores published "independently". Like Winston, Einaudi always works with the same publisher, and he's also still very much alive with active copyrights. So I don’t think these books are legit either.

Guy who publishes suspicious Einaudi books:
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=str...=dp_byline_sr_book_1

Another guy who publishes suspicious Einaudi books:
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=str...=dp_byline_sr_book_1

Very likely that they have been offered for sale without proper rights. I‘d say maybe log a complain with Amazon, maybe send also a message or two to alert the rightful publisher(s), and move on with your life.

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I‘d say maybe log a complain with Amazon, maybe send also a message or two to alert the rightful publisher(s)

I may actually do that. I think copyrights are super important, and also with regard to musical scores, if we want access to high quality scores, we have to support both the composers (those who are still alive) and also the music publishers (even for music by dead people).

quote:

move on with your life