Mélodies de Reynaldo Hahn

[cjcandeb]

The Books themselves were printed by Heugel in 1894 and 1900, but were reprint in 2004.

[Carolus]

Reprinting something does not qualify for a new copyright. They would be PD in the USA and Canada, still protected in the EU because of Hahn's death date.

[haydenmuhl]

I've just checked the two volumes of Melodies out of the library and plan to scan them at work. Like you say, reprinting does nothing to the copyright, but I just noticed something interesting on some of the songs in volume one. The song Nocturne has an original copyright of 1896, but underneath it says the copyright was renewed in 1923. Under US copyright, anything first published before 1923 is public domain, but if the copyright was renewed in 1923, will that effect the public domain status of this score?

[KGill]

The 1923 date is not a new notice - back then, it was required to renew the copyright after 28 years (I don't know why it isn't 28 years in this case; that's kind of weird) to get a full 75-year term (later, a 95-year term). The actual notice is the 1896 one; therefore, the US copyright expired in 2062 (I'm pretty sure).

[steltz]

the US copyright expired in 2062 (I'm pretty sure).

The past tense means that we are beyond 2062 now. Have I jumped into a new century without knowing it?

[KGill]

Whoops, my bad I meant that it expired in 1962. Sorry...

[Carolus]

The reason it was 28 years was that the US law from 1909 to 1962 stipulated a 28-year initial term, with an optional renewal term for another 28 years. Thus, a work published in 1896 would have entered the US public domain in 1952 (terms ran to the anniversary date of publication, not the end of the year). Starting in 1962, Congress extended the term of works in their renewal term year-by-year until the new law went into effect on 1/1/1978.