For all you teachers out there:

Do you ever lend sheet music to your students knowing that they'll make copies of it to use (instead of buying the original)? When would you do that? Do you think lending music is alright, even if your students don't intend to make copies?

When would you make photocopies of the music?

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Personally, I'd get my students to buy their own sheet music because it's only fair that way.

And after the performance/exam, they'll have their own legitimate copy of the music for future performances.

But, if it's a "trial" type of piece, I'll lend them my own sheet music for one or two weeks, and if they decide that they like the piece, I'll get them to buy the music.

I'd also make a copy of the music to use in lessons sometimes, because I like to write important things in marker.

I try my best not to allow photocopying...

For older works I just send my students the IMSLP copy in PDF or give them directions to find it themselves.

For works that are still copyrighted, I will admit that I take into account if the composer is alive or not, but still I do not copy anything. I will offer them my score to use if there's a single piece they need or if there's more than one, I will just tell them to buy their own score.

The only photocopying I do is to ease a page turn in performance, so just that page.

I lend a fair amount of music. For sheet music, I might put it in plastic protectors. They often like sheet pieces enough they choose to purchase them.

I am increasingly lending a lot of music. I like to have kids working from multiple levels at once and from lots of different books, so to ease the burden financially (and keep my concscience light!) I lend some of that. Usually I have kids buy books that are at their exam level, and lend the materials for below their level. Ethically I can't see a problem with lending. Especially when I still have the parents buying a lot of music.

The bonuses to my mind of lending over photocopying are that it's legal, cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

I'm thinking of including an administration fee to help cover the cost of purchasing materials for lending. That will make it even more economically viable.

If I'm teaching out of a book they buy it.
However I also have students request (usually pop) songs to learn in which case I make the sheet music myself. Before computers I would hand write it and then photo copy, but now of course I just save and print as needed.
This way I can tailor the arrangements to the skills of the student. I can't always do that with commercial sheet music.