Klarinet Archive - Posting 000310.txt from 2000/07

From: charette@-----.org
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Original scores for festival judges.
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2000 11:50:57 -0400

Roger wrote:

> It seems that interpretation of this specific opinion is more open and
>flexible than was formerly presented in Mark's posting of the attorney
>opinions. While those attorneys may have a strong position with regard to
>copyrighted material for public domain music, a lawsuit alleging copyright
>violation might very well stand up against the argument that PD material
>cannot be copyrightable in the US......especially if it can be proven that
>the material has been creatively expressed as to be assignable to a person
>rather than to the original composer.

There's a lot more case law than just this. It opened up the floodgates, and there's been a number of copyright cases that deal specifically with music and what is required to make a piece original enough to be copyrightable - in fact, as soon as I can get the info, I'll forward the case info to the list. In effect, the copyright law that makes it illegal to copy the "essence" of a copyrighted musical selection makes it impossible to copyright a public domain piece of music.

Mark C.

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