Klarinet Archive - Posting 000261.txt from 2000/07

From: charette@-----.org
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Original scores for festival judges.
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 11:09:27 -0400

> The copyright on such a work extends only
to the PRESENTATION (the placement of the notes, the number of measures per
staff, the graphic design of the cover, etc.) of that work.

Not in the US. "Sweat of the brow" work (typography, placement of notes, number of measures, page turns, breath marks, articulations, dynamics, etc. in the case of music) is excluded from copyrightability in the Feist decision of the US Supreme Court. The cover and text would be copyrightable, not the music. The Feist decision is far-reaching - catalogs of information (databases) are not copyrightable, and only novel presentations in specific cases are copyrightable. If you decided to create your own novel music notation system and printed it - that would be copyrightable.

In other words, if you decide to re-do a piece of PD music and make the score beautiful, great typeface, easy to read, perfect pages turns, etc. you can't copyright it in the US. That would be an implicit extension of a copyright which had reverted to public domain. Publishers would have you believe that an old work is under copyright when in fact the cover pages and possibly some editors notes are the only thing that would stand up to the copyright test.

Mark C.

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