Copyright and editors of public domain material

[Steve Martin]

Hi to the Forum,

I'm quite anxious in relation to Editors of public domain music and when they die and how long the public domain work they have edited remains in public domain after their death.

On this page: https://imslp.org/wiki/Guillaume_Tell_( ... ioacchino)

There is a Franz Liszt arrangement of the William Tell Overture, for scores #01097 and #04461, and it says they are in the Public Domain. However, the editors and their death date are the following:
Vladimir Belov (1906-1989)
Konstantin Sorokin (1908-1998)
Now, when I clicked on the editors name from this page, I got the details of them and for both of them it says, for Konstantin Sorokin

"Copyrights for this person's works have not naturally expired in Canada, the EU, Japan, and elsewhere, and files may be subject to deletion. This person's works are also probably copyrighted in the U.S. if first published after 1927, though exceptions may apply in some circumstances. (See public domain.) Some copyright holders have dedicated their work to the public domain or made it available under a license allowing for distribution on IMSLP. Please check the copyright status information on each page."
And for Vladimir Belov, it says:

"Copyrights for this person's works have not naturally expired in Canada, the EU, Japan, and elsewhere, and files may be subject to deletion. This person's works are also probably copyrighted in the U.S. if first published after 1927, though exceptions may apply in some circumstances. (See public domain.) Some copyright holders have dedicated their work to the public domain or made it available under a license allowing for distribution on IMSLP. Please check the copyright status information on each page"

So, how are these pieces in the P.D. when the editors died not so long ago? I'm just wanting to know when a PD score lasts in relation to the editors death. Thanks if someone can help me with this.


best regards,

Steve Martin

[Sallen112]

This is a very complicated subject with editors because it all depends on the "nature" on the additions that are made in the edition itself from the contributors (it would be Life + 70 in both Canada and the EU). Since its a Soviet Edition, by the fall of the Soviet Union, the editions themselves (except for the underlying original copyright of the main contributor of the setting, or arrangement in this case by Liszt, who is in the public domain), entered the public domain by the end of 1991. Because the additions made by the editors were determined to not be significant enough for copyright protection, then this fall onto the edition itself, which is Public domain in all regions then.

If those contributors were to have copyright protections, it would need to be a significant original contribution done by them to get copyright protection such as heavily fingering an edition could be siginficant enough (if it was lightly fingered, maybe not).

[Steve Martin]

Hi Sallen112,

thanks so much for letting me know this.

best regards,

Steve