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Would any of you have information on the source of this edition: http://horndude77.googlepages.com/Niels ... o_horn.pdf

I believe the publisher information is "Copenhagen: Skandinavisk Musikforlag, 1944." This is after Carl Nielsen's death in 1931. I haven't seen an editor listed. I assume this is public domain as the source I used stripped the original publisher information and sold it.

Thanks!

It's PD in the USA, as well as the rest of the world (Denmark still had a 50 year term when the copyright expired there in 1995, I don't think they put it bck under the copyright when the law was changed to 70pma).

Seconded. It was reprinted by Master's Music in the late 80's, so it's fair game. Upload away.

Done. Thanks!

You are wrong about two aspects:

1. It is in copyright in the United States. It was published there after 1923 and is a foreign work which was in copyright when the 1996 provisions came into force.

2. Copyright was retrospectively extended in Denmark. Part of the EU directive stipulated that where any work was in copyright in the EU up to life of the author plus 70 years that had to be applied everywhere in the EU.

It is not under copyright in the United States and is today reprinted and available for sale by Masters Music (M1169), because of either or both of the following factors 1) it was published without a proper notice in 1944, which automatically injected the work into the US public domain upon publication; and/or 2) the copyright was not renewed after 28 years, which caused it to enter the public domain in 1972 or 1973.

When the GATT amendments to US law were enacted in 1996, the work was public domain in its country of origin (Denmark) because it has been published more than 50 years previous (1944) - making it ineligible for "restoration" under GATT. Denmark's change in law to 70 pma may have restored it to copyright if the retroactive provisions extended to posthumously published works (Nielsen died in 1931), but under the normal 70 pma rubric the work would be public domain in Denmark at present.

No, it was not public domain in Denmark in 1996. I say again, the EU directive mandated retrospective extension of copyright. Anything which was by an author who died between 1926 and 1945 came back into copyright. It is not a good law, but it was in the directive and thus had to be implemented in national laws, Denmark included.

Carl Neilsen's works will not re-emerge from copyright in the EU until the end of 2014.

Since the work was not public domain in Denmark in 1996 then the GATT rule kicked in and copyright was restored.

1. No NIE was filed before the cutoff date (1998) and Masters continues to offer for sale to this day. It would appear that Canto Serioso was protected in Denmark back in 1996, but missed the opportunity for restoration being enforceable. Therefore, we are considering this work to be PD in the USA, unless someone produces a court decision stating it is not so. If you have an issue with that, I suggest you take it up with Masters - I can even tell you exactly who to write. In any case, it's unambiguously public domain in Canada, where this site is hosted (and whose copyright laws we follow).

2. Your assertion that Carl Nielsen's works are protected in the EU until 2014 is absurd. Nielsen died in 1931. In most of the EU, the works published in his lifetime (the vast majority) entered the public domain in 2002. The term was extended from life-plus-50 to life-plus-70, not life-plus-83. In some countries the extension was retroactive, in others it was not. The only issue at hand wrt Canto Serioso is whether the retroactivity of the Copyright provisions extended to posthumously published works whose copyright had already expired. We have tagged the work non-PD EU just in case posthumous works get a 70 year run from publication if first published within the 70 year window following an auhtor's death. Under that interpretation, Canto Serioso (not all of Nielsen's work) would be under copyright until 1/1/2015.

In fact, according to the following section (4) of the Danish Copyright Act of 2006, it is not very clear if a posthumous publication is protected for any more than 70 years past the author's death, even if first published 69 years post-mortem. Note that Item 64 pertains only to works first published after the 70-year window.

63.-(1) The copyright in a work shall last for 70 years after the year of the author’s death or with regard to the works mentioned in section 6 after the year of death of the last surviving author.

With regard to cinematographic works the copyright, however, shall last for 70 years after the year of death of the last of the following persons to survive:
(i) the principal director;
(ii) the author of the script;
(iii) the author of the dialogue; and
(iv) the composer of music specifically created for use in the cinematographic work.

(2) Where a work is made public without indication of the author’s name, generally known pseudonym or signature, the copyright shall last for 70 years after the year in which the work was made public. Where a work consists of parts, volumes, instalments, issues or episodes a separate
term of protection shall run for each item.

(3) If within the period mentioned the author is indicated in accordance with section 7 or if it is established that he had died before the work was made public, the duration of copyright shall be calculated in accordance with subsection (1).

(4) Copyright in a work of unknown authorship that has not been made public shall last 70 years after the end of the year in which the work was created.

64. Where a work has not been published previously, the person who lawfully makes the work public or publishes it for the first time after the expiry of copyright protection, shall have rights in the work equivalent to the economic rights attributed by the Act to the person creating a literary or artistic work. This protection shall last for 25 years after the end of the year in which the work was made public or published.

This is from the Copyright Law of 2006. The language of this section is identical to that of the 1993 EU implementation law.

I misread the earlier posts about Neilsen's date of death. For that you have my sincere apologies. If he did indeed die in 1931 then that alters his status in the EU for works published during his lifetime. All works by Neilsen published during his lifetime are out of copyright in the EU and have been since the end of 2001 except for any separate editorial copyrights.

However my mistake over Neilsen's date of death does not invalidate the point about copyright in the United States. His works still came back into copyright at the start of 1996 because he died in 1931. That means they were revived in the United States.

Legally Masters is pretty secure. The publishers of the Canto Serioso have had ample time to take enforcement action and they have not done so. There is therefore a very, very strong case that any judge would find the publishers of Canto Serioso to be estopped from taking any action against Masters.

As for Canada, I said nothing about Canada at all. The point I was making was about the copyright status in the United States, and how the EU's retrospective extension of copyright interacted with the GATT clause in US law.

But your response sidestepped the issue that Carolus mentions of them not filing a NIE before the 1998 cutoff date...

No hard feelings. It's a good example of how copyright issues can become much more complex than they might appear to be at first glance. As for Canto Serioso, the issue of retroactivity might not come into direct play here due to what the Danish statute spells out (or fails to spell out) for the duration of works published after an author died but before the normal term of protection expires (the 70-year window). Reading the Danish law strictly, Canto Serioso fell into the public domain initially on Jan. 1, 1982 in Denmark, along with all of Nielsen's work published up to 12/31/1981. Upon Denmark's retroactive expansion of the copyright term in 1993, the work would have become copyright again for another 8 years (1993-2001), along with all of Nielsen's works. However, on 1/1/2002, it appears to have entered the public domain again.

I could not find any provision in the Danish law addressing posthumous works first issued within the normal term. Under Canada's system, the 1944 publication had a 50-year term starting in 1944 and ending in 1994, entering the Canadian public domain on 1/1/1995 - even though most of Nielsen's other works went PD back in 1982. I'll have to look over the EU statute itself to see if it addresses this particular issue.

As for Masters (along with Kalmus, Dover, Lucks and other US reprint houses), it's a safe bet that they've already been through whatever legal challenge may have been made wrt a given title's public domain status in the US. Kalmus (and it's division Masters) in particular have been through several court battles over the years which they've won most of the time. Apart from the new editions they publish (only a small proportion of the catalog), the Kalmus and Masters catalogs can be accurately characterized as a 'musical encyclopedia of the US public domain.'

The GATT amendments allowed a two-year window for NIE's. The enforceability of any claim filed after the cutoff date is dubious. There are other factors that could come into play as well, like the work being available for sale in the US within 30 days of its publication in Denmark - potentially rendering a title ineligible for GATT (and thus subject to the much stricter standards of the 1909 law) because it was legally published in the US as well as in Denmark.

Watching the learned copyright experts "locking horns" here, so to speak, is actually a very educational exercise.

Please carry on (but no inflicting of grievous bodily harm, please) - this is all important stuff that we lesser mortals need to grasp eventually, to help us have any hope of submitting things intelligently to IMSLP and doing our own copyright research.

Maybe we should have a panel, to which would-be submitters describe their score, and then the experts discuss: is this piece PD? in which jurisdiction(s)? if not, why not?

Aldona

Aldona, for clear-cut cases, I think it's most practical for users, basing their judgement on the public domain documentation on the website, and just upload and await the review process. And for dubious cases, I actually think this is just the right place to discuss it - did you have another system in mind?

Carolus wrote: The GATT amendments allowed a two-year window for NIE's.

When searching the records, on what database do you rely? I have downloaded the Gutenberg copy, but can't really find much of musical scores in it.

As far as I know, LC never databased the NIEs in an intelligible way. The best method to search them is to download the PDF of the filings from 1996-1998 and pour through the tedious records. They were filed on a quarterly basis.

I think the NIE filings are in the LC system, it's just that they are attached to the recordation and transfers section - making a search by author or title useless.