John Howell wrote:
At 9:13 PM -0500 9/2/05, Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
When, in response to Johannes' comment;
Just out of curiosity, I am currently wondering whether a printed
edition from 1978 in the US is still under copyright (for the printed
edtion, not for the piece itself, which is from the 19th century)?
Dr. Howell writes,
If it carries a copyright notice, it is.
my own personal experience prompts me to disagree. I own copies of
two editions of the same item, one in the public domain in the U.S. by
virtue of its age, the other a published, with a copyright notice from
the early 1980's. A note by note, expression by expression comparison
of the two editions shows that the copyright notice from the 1980's is
most likely fraudulent, as the only difference between the two
editions is the name of the "arranger" below the name of the original
composer.
I do not mean to suggest that this was a common practice, but I do
mean to suggest that, in the case of older works, it may be prudent to
take the time and effort to verify that the claim of copyright notice
is, in fact, legitmately made.
Noel is, of course, exactly right. The most egregious example of this
kind of behavior I'm aware of is the fraudulent claim of copyright by a
certain publisher in an enormous amount of 19th century piano music. I
won't name the publisher, but think of yellow covers!
But when a local composer wrote a musical version of "The Prisoner of
Zenda," a few years ago, I checked the book out of the library to read
it, and discovered an entirely spurious copyright notice on it since the
book was clearly public domain by its date of original publication.
So let me amend my response: If it carries a legitimate copyright
notice, it is!
John
As for those editions with the yellow covers (and green ink?) I recall
looking at many of them and seeing no copyright notice at all. Not
being much of a pianist I don't have a very large library of piano
music, but I have never liked the layout of much of the music from that
publisher and so have tended to buy other editions. Thus I can't lay my
hands on any of them.
But I do recall having looked at some and not seen any copyright claim
at all, other than on the cover design.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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