<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
dhbailey écrit: Neither am I, though the PDF seems to say so (an Urtext edition of Mozart would indeed be a "scientific edition" of a musical work), nor do I think it would be good for the publishing business.
The way I understand copyrights here in the states (and the way I read the introductory text to the German law) the copyright law is for the good of the society-- not the publishers' good. The quote applies to public domain music already, so if it doesn't apply to Barenreiter's Mozart editions, I'd be surprised. Like David suggested earlier, there's the caveat of other EU laws suspending this perhaps, and copyright laws in other countries would affect what you could do but if someone in Germany PDFed the Barenreiter Edition and posted it on a German server, what could Barenreiter do to stop it?
Publishers are already reluctant to undertake major projects. If their work is only protected for 25 years, the situation will become hopeless. The publication of complete editions often takes more than 25 years to be completed.
The first set of books would be public domain, while the later vols would be covered. I think 25 years is plenty of time for a company to recover it's costs on music that's already public domain, more since when you consider some new rsearch would have been started after 25 years, most research libraries would have purchased the sets ( I know very few individuals that own complete sets of the Bach or Mozart editions in the clothbound versions). I think this is why you're seeing the paperback versions of the Bach/Mozart edition, the demographic that would have purchased the original sets has pretty much done so by now. I know some of the Telemann editions from Barenreiter are no longer available, especially the ones from the 1950s. Costs and recovery point: the C.P.E. Bach edition releases vols at about 20.00 USD, so I assume that's barebones costs. A simliar book by Barenreiter is over 250 USD. Barenreiter is making a very handsome profit I believe. Kim Patrick Clow _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
