[Foundation-l] Implications of IMSLP case

[Stephen Bain]

On 10/22/07, Klaus Graf <klausgraf at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> There is a current trend for all our common cultural heritage to be
> "privatized" and exploited by private corporations for the sole
> purpose of making money. The idea that the works of Shakespeare,
> Beethoven and Leonardo da Vinci (et al) should "belong" to anyone
> except the people of this planet (and beyond) is outrageous.

While the plain text of Shakespeare's works is undoubtedly in the
public domain, if I were to prepare and publish a collection of
Shakespeare's works then I would have copyright over things like the
layout and the typographical arrangement and such. In Australia this
is referred to as a "published edition", I'm not sure what it's called
elsewhere.

The same goes for sheet music. I could prepare and publish the sheet
music of a Mozart concerto, and while ths music itself would be public
domain, I would still have copyright in the published edition.

Plus, as Gregory mentioned, there can be entirely new copyrights in
things like transcriptions for different instruments or other
alterations and notations, not to mention new arrangements of the
music.

-- 
Stephen Bain
stephen.bain at gmail.com