My great-grandfather, Guy Booth, composed and published a lot of choral music (which my grandfather has, but he just broke his hip, so I'm not going to ask him for it yet, but I will eventually).
I think some of it was written pre-1922, but most of it was probably not. My question is thus: BECAUSE it is out of print AND it won't ever be printed again AND I'm the great-granddaughter of the composer, do you think it's legal for me to post it on CPDL?
~Jewels
Copyright Question
Re: Copyright Question
When a composer dies, his copyright falls to his heirs. So when the music is still under copyright, you must ask his formal heir for permission, which might be your grandfather, but if he is not the only heir things can become very complicated.
Whether the music is still under copyright, depends on when the composer died and when the music has previously been published. In the US it depends AFAIK only on the time of publication: anything published before 1922 is in the public domain, everything else will never go into the public domain in the US. CPDL is accessible throughout the world, you must make sure, that the music is also in the public domain according to the terms outside the US, which is generally that the composer must be dead for more than 70 years.
So it is safe to publish everything that your grand-grandfather published before 1922, provided he has died more than 70 years ago.
Looking forward to exciting new music on CPDL,
Chris
Whether the music is still under copyright, depends on when the composer died and when the music has previously been published. In the US it depends AFAIK only on the time of publication: anything published before 1922 is in the public domain, everything else will never go into the public domain in the US. CPDL is accessible throughout the world, you must make sure, that the music is also in the public domain according to the terms outside the US, which is generally that the composer must be dead for more than 70 years.
So it is safe to publish everything that your grand-grandfather published before 1922, provided he has died more than 70 years ago.
Looking forward to exciting new music on CPDL,
Chris
Re: Copyright Question
Thanks for your interest in adding your great grandfather's works to CPDL, Jewels. I believe that Chris' answer is most informative, however, I would like to pick a hole in one point that he made, namely that CPDL only hosts works which are public domain worldwide. This isn't the case. There is plenty of music on CPDL which is public domain in the US but not in Europe, for example. There are a number of scores by Ralph Vaughan Williams on CPDL which are public domain in the US but none of Vaughan Williams' works are public domain in Europe (and other life +70 countries) until 2028. It is legal for CPDL to host these scores because the CPDL server is located in the US, but it's illegal for anyone in Europe and other life +70 countries to download the scores.
Rob Nottingham
CPDL Administrator
CPDL Administrator