The Suites from the Fairy Tale Operas and Dubinushka copyright

[Steve Martin]

Hi to the forum,

In trying to find the very original orchestration of the Flight of the Bumble Bee by Rimsky Korsakov, I eventually came across
it here, as an e-book or a print book from Dover

https://www.amazon.com.au/Suites-Operas ... B00NB9Z21O

I also came across it as a download from Schott music

https://en.schott-music.com/shop/hummel ... 49372.html

I actually can download it quite legally through my Queensland State Library. I did this, and it has extra text added to the side "Copyright 2014 All rights reserved". So, the score is obviously in the public domain as the composer, R Korsakov has been dead for since 1908, but is the download copy I have - which I wanted to use as a reference to give me ideas for my own orchestration, would this be "illegal" for me use the score as a springboard for ideas, and even also, to copy parts of the orchestration, out of it into my own orchestral arrangement? I've actually written to Dover, but haven't received a reply as yet, but I should soon. All previous enquiries they've stated the work is public domain, but this one, I'm just not sure of since they've copyrighted it from 2014. Maybe that is the designs and pictures etc on the book, as that's what I've discovered from reading the forum, and not the score, I would say.

thanks if someone can offer me help here.

best,

Steve Martin