Well, actually...if the song is a copyrighted song an arrangement of it cannot be copyrighted by anyone other than the owner of the copyright.
Not quite true, as far as I know. The copyright owner may, indeed grant permission to the arranger to copyright the arrangement in his own name. It would, of course, be subject to negotiation and to financial arrangments, but in fact it appears to be done all the time.
So if a song says something like "Arr. (c) Copyright 2003 by Acme Publishing" it is likely the song was public domain.
Doesn't follow, although of course it is possible. It could be that the original copyright owner did grant permission but did not insist that the original copyright information be included. That is where searching the performing rights databases, while necessary, can get very frustrating.
Thus Acme Publishing is, in fact, the owner of the copyright as it pertains to that *arrangement.* The song itself remains PD and anyone else can arrange it, too, and copyright their own arrangement.
Quite true, if in fact the original IS in the public domain.
Publishers do it differently as regards copyright notices of arrangements of copyrighted material. When it's a publisher publishing an arrangement of a song he does not own, but has reprint permission for, in most, if not all, cases, said publisher adheres to whatever copyright wording the owner of the copyright specifies when the owner grants reprint permission. Often there is no mention of "Arr." at all.
Right. And in a number of the band medleys our Community Band plays, there is such a proliferation of very specifically worded copyright notices for each and every song that they take up to half or even more of the first page in the parts.
John
-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
