Posted by Rick Denney on December 17, 2003 at 16:32:09:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Beelzebub Band Parts ....Help Please posted by bloke on December 17, 2003 at 14:45:55:
Yes, if you can find parts dated 1922 and earlier. It's okay if it says "Renewed 19xx" where the date is 28 years after the original date, so it doesn't have to be printed before 1923, it just has to be dated before that time. Thus, the following might be found on public domain sheet music:
"Copyright 1920 John Phillip Sousa. Renewed 1948 By the Estate of John Phillip Sousa."
But if it says "Copyright 1942 Carl Fischer Company", then you can't assume it's public domain, even if you know Sousa wrote it in 1920. It's a copy where Carl Fischer, who had bought the rights, had made edits so they could start over with the copyright period. Most public-domain music that is still printed is called "urtext" and is marked as such. Dover scores are an example.
If Carl Fischer (to carry my fictitious example one step further) sued you for making a tuba quartet arrangement of that Sousa march that was originally copyrighted in 1920 and recopyrighted in 1942 in a new edition, then you need to be able to produce music that shows the original copyright date. If the document you produced was the version with the 1940 Carl Fischer copyright mark on it, and you explained that you only copied what was in the original, you'd lose, because the only way you can prove what was in the original is to demonstrate that you had it in your possession when you made the copy.
Thus, if you go to the library and make copies of stuff that has passed into the public domain, make sure what you are copying shows that early copyright date, and keep it.
Rick "thinking that the notion of permanent copyright protection is a recent idea" Denney