IMSLP Forums

I have a question regarding some of the scores on this page: https://imslp.org/wiki/Neue_Bach-Ausgab ... Sebastian)

these are obviously public domain works that have been reengraved etc.
Some of these are still not public domain in the USA. Why does the more than 25 year old rule since the re-publication of a pd work not apply to them?
I did notice that some of the volumes are listed as Pd. I don't live in the USA, but live in Australia.

I also saw in the WTC book 1, that there is 2 files that seem to originally come from Neue Bach-Ausgabe, Series V, Band 6.1 (pp.1-123), The files on the WTC bk 1 page are #886531, and #576048 and are noted as PD . However, the source for these files seems to be The Series V, Band 6.1 mentioned above. So, the non pd version of the same work is #885885 on the first page link I gave in this message.
This is a little confusing, but I'm sure there is a logical explanation for this.

Thanks if anyone can help me understand what is happening here.

Steve

Hello,

So the reason why certain volumes have the Non PD Status for the USA is a bit complex. In short here is a guideline of how the tags are applied for the USA (the 25 year rule does not apply to the USA, only for Canada since they follow EU status and EU is the 25 year rule for critical editions):

• Anything published from 1929-63 with Copyright Registration and Renewal has a term for 95 years since publication, without a renewal found, then it is most likely PD in the USA.

• Anything published from 1964-77 is automatically copyright for 95 years, renewals are not applicable here as long as the copyright notice is a proper notice.

• Anything 1978 and later is Life + 70 on here of the death of the most recent contributor of the volume (e.g. Editors for example of the volume contents or the content of the section who edited it in the volume) who is still alive or died recently. If all editors are still alive, we apply "N" (which does not expire) for now until we get updates later on if all the editors die for that particular volume, then the tag can be updated to a (for Life + 70) year where the tag does finally expire in the USA.

However its been disputed that the copyrights on these kinds of volumes don't hold much water in the USA because there is no new original content being shown in the music (because it is a critical/scientific edition engraving 1:1 from the facsimiles as close as possible), as the music is already in the public domain everywhere for J.S. Bach. But to be safe, we are still going to apply the copyright term to the USA regardless for now for volumes with Life + 70 of any contributor involved with the volume (published 1978 and later).

Hi,

yes, that is rather complex. The rule here, down under in Australia for all pd materials that have been republished, is it expires after 25 years, which sounds exactly the same as Canada and other places.

I have read on the net somewhere that there is some kind of agreement between Australia and US if there are copyright differences, but I'm going to try and contact the authorities today that deal with copyright here in Australia, and see if I can find some further information on that.

I'll let you know how I go when I find out more.

Thanks for taking the time to explain the US urtext edition rules.

best regards,

Steve