[Foundation-l] Implications of IMSLP case

[Ray Saintonge]

Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> On 10/21/07, Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:
> [snip]
>   
>> The letter says, "As you are aware, [Europe has copyright author death
>> +70, Canada has author death + 50]. Certain of these composers' works
>> are further protected in Canada or the United States under the
>> appropriate /Copyright Act/ of these jurisdictions."
>>
>> Further protected, what are they talking about? Any ideas?
>>     
> There are special cases like Peter Pan in the UK some jurisdictions,
> so that could be part of it.. Also things like the WWII copyright
> extensions (i.e. Antoine de Saint-Exupery).
>   
The Peter Pan and King James Bible situations are just oddball, and we 
have not yet reached 70 years since Saint-Exupéry.
> For sheet music, however, there are a lot of other minefields:
>
> A *lot* of the scores out there are not verbatim duplicates of the
> authors' original works. Frequently you find transcriptions for
> different instruments, for example arranging a work written for
> orchestra for piano, or a brass ensemble or vice versa. These
> alterations are indisputably copyrightable just about anywhere.  Also,
> the scores may enumerate various types of ornamentation or
> embellishment which the original author left to the the performers
> taste, in the world of sheet music these changes are also understood
> to be copyrightable.  Finally, especially for some forms of music
> there are sometimes substantial parts the composer intentionally left
> out (i.e. cadenza in concerti) which are often written in sheet music,
> which are also certainly copyrightable.
>   
Sure this would be essentially true, but with the material taken down 
any suggestion that these special situations would apply is nothing but 
speculation.
> In many cases the composer's original works (called urtext editions)
> can be very very hard to locate... and sometimes the urtext will still
> end up containing copyrightable cadenza(s).  As a result there is
> probably a fair amount of truly old music which has fallen out of the
> public domain. :(
>   
These "copyrightable cadenzas" are severable.  They do not in themselves 
cause the rest of the material to fall out of the public domain
> In addition to that mess the layout/typography of sheet much enjoys
> copyright in some jurisdictions... although these can be avoided by
> retranscribing the works... but for many kinds of music that can be a
> really substantial amount of work. (Too bad we don't have the WikiTeX
> sheet music extension...)
>   
Indeed, and that's the case for other non-musical works too.  Until the 
United States abolished the need for a copyright notice, if the notice 
showed only the original copyright date, without any updates for the 
layout, etc. they could not make a case for that.

Ec