Klarinet Archive - Posting 000605.txt from 1995/09

From: OLIVER SEELY <oliver@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Music software
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 15:06:38 -0400

Steve,
Sharing MIDI files sounds like a super idea. My understanding
is that if one transcribes directly or rearranges a piece by
some guy long dead, the music is in the public domain, unless
the arranger decides to copyright it himself/herself.

I'd be very careful about making available on the Internet anything
that might be a copyrighted arrangement of some earlier
work. The copyright might still be in effect.

The arrangement of Mozart's K411 for example was taken from
his 2-clarinet, 3 basset horn quintet and
"revised and edited by Richard Franco Goldman." The copyright
date on my copy is 1946. Whether Goldman's revision and
editing is major enough to consitute a new copyrighted work
might have to be decide by the courts and I
don't want to become a test case (or involve my university,
horrors!)

But as for pieces that are faithful to the original composition
more than a century ago, or new transpositions of such works,
(by people who WANT to share them on the net)
my feeling is that they are fair game for sharing electronically.
A friend who is a lawyer who specializes in intellectual
property tells me that except for new arrangements of old works,
the copyright on works by Mozart, Crusell, etc. are on the
PRESENTATION (how it looks on the page) only.

I have an anonymous ftp subdirectory ready to go. Would
you like me to put the Crusell MIDI files on my directory
for those of you who want them?

Oliver
P.S. Gotta log off, my system is going down. I'll comment
more on this later.