What is the copyright status of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence"; music is "Picardy; traditional French carol, 17C, translation by Gerard Moultrie (1829-85)? The original source is "Liturgy of St. James," which I'm pretty sure is ancient. Can I assume a 17C piece is public domain?
Thank you for your reply, Max at Choralia. Now, how do I go about finding a public domain edition of the work? What I have is a photocopy, the source of which I don't know, and I would like to make my own arrangement of it. What do I do next?
Copyright status
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Veronica Dudych
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- Joined: 23 Feb 2011 04:36
Copyright status
Last edited by Veronica Dudych on 23 Feb 2011 15:17, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Copyright status
Copyright applies to works and to editions. An old work may be public domain, however a recent edition of it may be copyrighted. This may limit your freedom to create and publish your own edition of this work if your edition is based on a recent copyrighted edition. Copyright regulations on new editions of public domain works vary a lot country by country. For example, if you live in Canada (just a guess 
), copyright on new editions is much weaker than, say, in the U.S. .
Max
), copyright on new editions is much weaker than, say, in the U.S. .Max
Re: Copyright status
Hi Veronica, please use the "reply" button to reply a post, and do not edit your previous post: by doing as I suggest the logical flow of the topic is more clear, and people who have replied already to you may receive a notification that there are new posts. Edited posts do not trigger notifications.
To identify the original edition of your photocopy you should use as a search key any additional information available on it. The title, the name of the translator, an editor name, the plate number that may be printed at the bottom, even the number of pages are all useful information. Then enter such information on Worldcat (http://www.worldcat.org), and try to identify results that match your elements. Using title and translator, Worldcat provides 27 results, so you may probably identify your score edition among them by means of the other elements.
Max
To identify the original edition of your photocopy you should use as a search key any additional information available on it. The title, the name of the translator, an editor name, the plate number that may be printed at the bottom, even the number of pages are all useful information. Then enter such information on Worldcat (http://www.worldcat.org), and try to identify results that match your elements. Using title and translator, Worldcat provides 27 results, so you may probably identify your score edition among them by means of the other elements.
Max
Re: Copyright status
I just wanted to expand a bit on what Max previously wrote:
Please note that CPDL is based in the U.S., so if a work was okay under your local laws but not permitted under U.S. copyright laws, then you should not post it on CPDL. Thank you for inquiring about this!Copyright regulations on new editions of public domain works vary a lot country by country. For example, if you live in Canada (just a guess
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Veronica Dudych
- Posts: 4
- Joined: 23 Feb 2011 04:36
Re: Copyright status
Got your note, Vaarky. Thanks. I was wondering where CPDL is based. Do you know anything about CyberHymnal? Where are they based? Are they related or connected to CPDL in any way?
This summer, someone gave me a leaflet with what looked like a poem, with no source info on it, and suggested I try setting it to music, which I did. Only later did I think to look it up, and found a "traditional" (compared to mine) setting, on CyberHymnal, which they marked as public domain. Their dates were 1871 for the lyrics and 1874 for the music. I've since also checked YouTube, and found a few different settings, some more contemporary than the original. So can I assume anything about this one? It's traditional title is "A Christian's Good Night."
This summer, someone gave me a leaflet with what looked like a poem, with no source info on it, and suggested I try setting it to music, which I did. Only later did I think to look it up, and found a "traditional" (compared to mine) setting, on CyberHymnal, which they marked as public domain. Their dates were 1871 for the lyrics and 1874 for the music. I've since also checked YouTube, and found a few different settings, some more contemporary than the original. So can I assume anything about this one? It's traditional title is "A Christian's Good Night."
Re: Copyright status
According to http://www.steering.org/162/st16242.pdf, the poem "The Christian's Good Night" is by Sarah Doudney, who died in 1926. According to your searches, the folks at CyberHymnal have found out that it was published during her lifetime, so the text is in the public domain in almost all countries, including the EU, Canada and the US.
When setting text to music, it is generally a good idea to check the copyright status of the text, because if it is still copyrighted, you are not allowed to publish your setting without permission (which is typically very difficult or impossible to obtain for noncommercial purposes). Note that this also applies to Bible translations: make sure that you use a public domain translation (e.g. KJV, Vulgata, Luther, etc.) or a freely licensed translation like the "World English Bible" (http://ebible.org/).
To be absolutely safe even from third parties claiming copyrights over minor edits in modern editions, the best would be to work from facsimiles of sufficiently old editions, but this requires considerable time effort and ordering photocopies from libraries can also be expensive. OTOH, I have almost always found that the research invested in getting hold of the original source has payed off, because it reveals a number of "corrections" (which often are dubious decisions) in modern editions.
Chris
When setting text to music, it is generally a good idea to check the copyright status of the text, because if it is still copyrighted, you are not allowed to publish your setting without permission (which is typically very difficult or impossible to obtain for noncommercial purposes). Note that this also applies to Bible translations: make sure that you use a public domain translation (e.g. KJV, Vulgata, Luther, etc.) or a freely licensed translation like the "World English Bible" (http://ebible.org/).
To be absolutely safe even from third parties claiming copyrights over minor edits in modern editions, the best would be to work from facsimiles of sufficiently old editions, but this requires considerable time effort and ordering photocopies from libraries can also be expensive. OTOH, I have almost always found that the research invested in getting hold of the original source has payed off, because it reveals a number of "corrections" (which often are dubious decisions) in modern editions.
Chris