On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 6:31 PM, Urs Liska <li...@ursliska.de> wrote: > May I suggest a concrete example for consideration (because it's a tricky > constellation and I'd appreciate any opinion)? > > Given a musical work that is clearly in the public domain (1820s). > The autograph score is in private possession (in Switzerland). > The contents of this autograph have been brought to the public through a > 'private print' (by a renowned scholar) in 1967. > I don't know how many copies there are from this private print, but some > of them are available through public libraries (where I had the opportunity > to take digital photographs). > > If I now would want to make an edition of that work, and explicitely the > version of that manuscript, would I have to ask the owner of the > manuscript, or could I argue that the music is in the public domain and the > manuscript has already been made public? >
I didn't know that buying an out-of-copyright work suddenly makes it fall under copyright. However (and this may be a gray area - I am not a lawyer) the new owner of a work may decide what you're allowed to do with it - up to a certain extent. Would a claim of the owners of the manuscript to either charge royalties or > prohibit the project be a valid cause or would you consider that copyfraud? > Imagine I have the possibility to acquire a manuscript by Bach. If I buy said manuscript, I can only make a claim about the material object I bought, not about the music it contains. Unless I conceal the work and am assured that nobody has a copy from before I acquired the manuscript. I am myself confronted with a similar issue - Opus 125 from F. A. Kummer got lost in the wars, I have no idea if the manuscript even exists, and the work was engraved a _very_ long time ago making it public domain. If I make it publishable, and add my own remarks, what then? I think I know the answer. Best regards, Olivier
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