IMSLP Forums

New year, new public domain works!
This year marks the PD-ness of works published in 1927, of which Sorabji has two:
Le Jardin Parfume and Valse-Fantaisie (both of which can be confirmed from the work pages on the Sorabji Archive)

Also, Sorabji's greatest work published within his lifetime, Opus Clavicembalisticum, might actually be PD as well! I and a friend looked at copyright renewals from 1957 to 1961 (from the list linked at https://imslp.org/wiki/Catalog_of_Copyr ... or_the_USA) and were unable to find it. If this is true, it is groundbreaking, and may the uploading proceed. If it's false, please locate the copyright renewal.

In addition, according to the biography Opus Sorabjianum (page 213), Sorabji's 1932 book Around Music was never registered for coypright in the United States and is likely also PD-US.

We have to have link evidence of publication for me to open up the category page again.

http://www.sorabji-archive.co.uk/compos ... pieceid=35 Le Jardin Parfumé
http://www.sorabji-archive.co.uk/compos ... pieceid=40 Valse-Fantaisie
https://roberge.mus.ulaval.ca/srs/07-prese.htm Around Music - (This is where Opus Sorabjianum can be downloaded, but simply for the link. As mentioned before, the statement that the book was never registered for copyright is located on page 213.)
And here are all the renewals I checked:
https://archive.org/details/CatalogOfCo ... ew=theater 1957a
https://archive.org/details/CatalogOfCo ... ew=theater 1957b
https://archive.org/details/CatalogOfCo ... ew=theater 1958a
https://archive.org/details/CatalogOfCo ... ew=theater 1958b
https://archive.org/details/CatalogOfCo ... ew=theater 1959a
https://archive.org/details/CatalogOfCo ... ew=theater 1959b
https://archive.org/details/CatalogOfCo ... ew=theater 1960a
https://archive.org/details/catalogofco ... ew=theater 1960b
https://archive.org/details/catalogofco ... ew=theater 1961a
https://archive.org/details/catalogofco ... ew=theater 1961b
Once again, just because I have failed to find it doesn't prove it doesn't exist. If you do find the renewal of Opus Clavicembalisticum, please inform me.

Alright go ahead.

Regarding this Opus Sorabjianum, that edition is probably not eligible without permission for upload since its copyrighted in 2021.

Opus Sorabjianum is the biography that I am using as a source for the non-registration of Around Music, sorry for the confusion.

Anyway, Le Jardin Parfume and Valse-Fantaisie are up

BTW since I forgot to mention it Opus Clavicembalisticum was published in 1931 (http://www.sorabji-archive.co.uk/compos ... pieceid=50)

Alright go ahead again, we'll have to check the CCE to make sure on that one.

You're off track on renewals. A lack of renewal is NOT enough.

In order for the lack of a renewal to make the piece PD, the piece must have either been originally published in the US, or made available in the US within 30 days of initial publication abroad. This may be the case for the Curwen scores, perhaps. But these cannot all be assumed to be US works and CANNOT be assumed to be PD-US. If you believe that a lack of a copyright renewal means that a non-US work is OK to upload, you are misinformed.

As for Around Music, the book virtually certainly had its copyright restored by the URAA in 1996. We cannot accept that book without evidence that it was simultaneously published in the US.

However, the stuff from 1927 is 100% fine for the US.

Hmm... one more wrench that might mess with Around Music though...
The book was reprinted (by an American company, publishing in the US) in 1979 without permission from Sorabji or even his knowledge.
How much does this complicate things?

If it was reprinted illegally without permission, then that would indicate its under copyright everywhere then most likely, so no, I don't think we can accept it.

My impression is that it was printed legally (perhaps) under the law at that time, but the URAA in 1996 restored copyright on that work... in this case, the 1979 publisher is a reliance party, and we are nobody, so no, it's not OK to post here without proof of its original simultaneous publication in the US. (But it will be fine in 2028.)

I think what happened is as DBMiller said, the work was not copyrighted in the US until URAA go brr....

That may be the case. I'm no fan of that law, but nevertheless, it went to the Supreme Court, and it is what it is ... at least those pieces will still expire fairly soon in the US, though.

Oh well, it's what it's.