Before I start, it would be opportune to state that I AM NOT A LAWYER, should anyone be so foolish as to treat the following as "legal advice".
HonkyTonk wrote:Which Mahler works being claimed by UE appeared on the ISMLP site?
This, and all other related information, appeared on the first page of this thread, quoted by Carolus:
Mahler Gustav (1860-1911)
Piano Quartet in A Minor - no longer at IMSLP
Symphony No. 1 (pub.1898, Weinberger, rev.1906, UE)
Symphony No. 2 (pub.1897, Hofmeister, rev.1906, UE)
Symphony No. 8 (pub.1910, UE)
To take these one by one.
The Piano Quartet is legitimately copyrightable as there is recent editorial contribution (by the recently deceased composer Alfred Schnittke), and as Carolus noted, was therefore removed from the IMSLP site, because - as some people still don't seem to appreciate this fact, it is worth reiterating - we
do respect copyright law.
Symphony 1 wasn't even originally published by U-E, but by one of the publishers who united to form U-E in 1901. The revisions in the reprints of 1906 (plate U.E. 2931) are completely minor, compared to the subsequent ones carried out by Erwin Ratz in the critical edition scores published mid-century. These critical editions usually took the original plates as starting points for the editorial revisions, and to my knowledge no other significant critical reappraisals of the Mahler scores occurred previously or subsequently. So the question is whether the scan on IMSLP is the Ratz version, or the original 1906 print. The fact that the score bears a copyright of 1967 is likely to be either a scarecrow notice, or is representative of it actually being the publication date of the Ratz version. If U-E were a German firm, the Ratz version would only have a 25 year copyright term, but Austrian law has no similar ruling regarding Urtext editions. I would therefore judge that U-E's request is only reasonable
if and only if the score is the Ratz version. A scan of a 1906 print is fair game as it is completely untenable for U-E to claim a 100+ year copyright from the date of publication when the life+70 copyright term since Mahler's death has well and truly expired (except possibly for Côte d'Ivoire/Mexico, see below at *). I haven't had time to closely look over the score to ascertain which version of the score was represented on IMSLP, but will edit this reply once I am more certain.
Bruno Walter's piano 4-hand transcriptions of Symphonies 1 and 2 do have to be removed, as Walter lived well into the 1960s and he is therefore entitled to copyright protection for his work, under most jurisdictional decisions regarding the creative content that is involved in any form of re-arrangement.
However, the same arguments before, in respect of the full score of Symphony 1, would apply to the full score of Symphony 2: a scan of the 1906 plates, U.E. 2933, is well and truly in the public domain (other than Côte d'Ivoire/Mexico, possibly*) and therefore fair game, and the only version that would enjoy any form of copyright protection anywhere is the critical edition by Ratz.
Symphony 8 was published by U-E in 1911 as plates U.E. 2772, and 3000, and again is only eligible for protection (* Côte d'Ivoire and Mexico excepted,
again) if it is the Ratz version. A brief glance at the score suggests it is
not the Ratz version, though I would have to make further consultations to be entirely certain. Again, for U-E to claim a 96-year term of copyright protection (effectively 1911 to 2007) when Mahler's own life+70 year term under Austrian law has been expired for over 25 years, is arguably bizarre in the extreme.
Best regards, Philip
* In an earlier post, the representative of U-E stated that the term of life+100 years is a fiction, and most works have a protection of life+75 years. This doesn't seem to be true, and in any case, one would have to be an expert in copyright law to speak with complete authority on the Mexican situation. Apparently the protection was life+75 years until July 2003, when the change to life+100 years was enacted. Does this act retrospectively to all of the works of authors and composers who died between 1903 and 1928? Some legislation has been aggressive in attempting to wrest works back from public domain, so one would need to know the particulars of that particular act of law. Good luck!