Optim wrote:

In the past I had this dicsussion:

Someone told me: - "Wow, your new classical music CDs are very nice."

I said: - "Yeap.."

He said: - "Classical music is old. so there is no copyright and I can copy and play this music as I like. Nobody can sue me."

I said: - "No, you cannot do whatever you want. Beethoven has no copyright rights over this work, but the ORCHESTRA which played the work, the COMPANY which recorded and published the work, ETC, have rights over their work. You will be sued NOT because you copied Beethoven's music, but because you copied this particular orchestra/music company's version of the music"

IANAL - I am not a lawyer

Am I right?

With the NOT inserted, you are correct. Works that are based on public domain material can still have a copyright based on the added contributions of their authors. The implications are significant. For example, it effectively means that no decent-quality sound recordings have passed into the public domain due to age, even if the recorded work is in the public domain.

--Michael Snow