IMSLP Forums

I have some scores published in France in the 1920s without a copyright notice. The only way you can determine the date is that it is provided at the end of the music (as is sometimes the custom). At least in the United States, I believe these works would be public domain since the publisher failed to include the notice (and the work is published before 1998 after which no © symbol was needed).

Does IMSLP consider these works public domain? (and can I upload them ?)

If I correctly remember, a copyright notice is not required any more since 1989, not 1998. Anyway, there might be also other reasons for these works to be public domain in the US, such as failure to comply with copyright renewal provisions. On the other hand, the GATT/TRIPS amendmends may have restored US copyright on works published outside the US if they were still protected in the country of origin as of 1 January 1996.

I would suggest to start uploading them, and copyright reviewers will evaluate their status.

Max

If the scores were published in the early 1920's (before 1923) then they at least public domain in the US. Depending upon when the composers died, you may not need to worry about the lack of copyright notice. But basically: both the Acts of 1909 and 1976 require a copyright notice for the work to be protected. But the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 makes works published after March 1st, 1989 copyrighted regardless. To make any accurate statement regarding the copyright of a work, we would really need to see the publication(s) in question.

The issue of compliance with US copyright customs, especially for works published outside the US, is relatively complicated. The best source I've seen for making any sense out if it is Cornell's PD chart: http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm. I hope this helps.

The tricky thing with some of those French scores published w/o notice (which would have immediately injected them into the public domain the moment a copy was placed on sale in the USA at the time) is that the heirs or owners may have been eligible to file for restoration under GATT/TRIPS. It gets a little more complicated after 1955, when the USA signed the UCC treaty. Although still requiring a notice, the placement and format demands were relaxed somewhat for overseas works.