IMSLP Forums

What is the meaning of the copyright tags? I remember seeing it here some time ago but now i can't find it.

Gus

I think this is right:

The format is Canada/US/EU, and the letters are as follows:

U=unchecked
V=verified PD
C=checked (not sure)
N=Creative Commons, I think

I don't know what the asterisks mean.

Thanks. I wonder what the difference between "verified" and "checked" is; "checked" but not legal? Uncertain of status? Hm.

Gus

In a nutshell, the difference is:

Checked: we think we know the copyright status, so with reasonable certainty, we think it is in the public domain;
Verified: with reasonable confidence, we know the copyright status, and the work is in the public domain.

There are a lot of possible variables at work in making a copyright determination, so we try to make the line between checked and verified fairly clear. There is no practical difference for end-users of the site whether an item appears as "checked" as opposed to "verified". Because of the different copyright domains, it is quite possible for work to be "verifiable" in one domain but not another, so that occasionally combinations such as C/V/C or V/C/V may arise.

Obviously, the aim is to verify the copyright status of an edition definitively, but there are instances where this is not absolutely possible; for example, publications that can only be dated approximately and not assigned to a particular year (in the US, particularly around the year 1923). Another case, in the absence of other date-related information I marked one piece as "V/V/V" based on my knowledge of 19th century lithographic techniques; had the piece been typeset in the 20th century, it would have ended up looking quite different.

And also, asterisks are flags for urtext editions; N = not public domain, !N = not public domain but permission granted.

Regards, Philip