IMSLP Forums

While finding scores here I have noticed that there are many publications by Breitkopf & Hartel, C.F. Peters, Musyka/Muzgiz (Moscow), and others that were published after 1923. (1) Could someone please enlighten me as to how these are PD in the US? I read the public domain wiki page but it just seems to confuse me further. (2) Are these publications PD because they were published outside of the US? (3) Would the B&K scores be non-PD in Germany, where they were published? + are all Peters publications urtext editions? If so I understand why they are PD. Sorry for asking so many questions, I'm just curious. Oh one more -- so the country/region names in the table headers in the aforementioned wiki page -- (4) do they refer to the country in which a score is published or in which a score is downloaded? I think that's the center of my confusion.

Ok, let's take these in order. I hope you won't mind that I took the liberty of adding numbers to your questions for the sake of response.

1.) For a publication to be in the public domain in the US published after 1923, one of several conditions must be met. These can include, but are not limited to: [a] The publication was never registered with the copyright office; The publication was never renewed after a number of years; [c] No renewal was filed; [d] The publication contains a faulty copyright notice.
2.) No, because regions outside the US calculate term of copyright based on date of death from "contributor", which can mean composer, editor, or poet/librettist. Not all Peters publications fall under the definition of an "Urtext".
3.) Did you mean B&H (Breitkopf & Härtel)? If so, see number 2.
4.) They refer to the country of access.