Rust edition of Bach-Gesellschaft Chamber Music volumes

[steltz]

The following was submitted to our university's music librarian through MLA. I didn't want to answer what I thought was the right answer without double checking:

Editor: Wilhelm Rust (1822-1892)

Publisher Info.: Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe <http://imslp.org/wiki/Bach-Gesellschaft_Ausgabe> (1851-1900), Band 19
Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel <http://imslp.org/wiki/Breitkopf_%26_H%C3%A4rtel> , (1871). Plate B.W. XIX
#16310: Reprint - New York: Dover Publications <http://imslp.org/wiki/Dover_Publications> , 1976.

Copyright: Public Domain <http://imslp.org/wiki/Public_Domain>

She writes:
"While Bach's works certainly are public domain, I question whether recent editions are. Would this be edition be considered public domain in the U.S.?

Is anyone in MLA-land familiar with this website? Have you or your teaching faculty used it? We would like to make sure that we are correctly advising our music faculty.

Thank you in advance for any comments!"

Dover does a lot of reprints of public domain material, and this was a Dover reprint. The fact that the editor died more than 95 years ago, makes this definitely public domain, no matter when Dover reprinted it. Is this correct?

(In any case, given the editor's dates, it's unlikely the work would have been eligible for the full 95 years anyway -- is this also correct?)

[KGill]

It's definitely PD worldwide. It's even PD in Mexico (life+100), and certainly in Canada and the EU. 1871=way before 1923, not even a remote possibility of being under copyright in the US.

[steltz]

Thank you for this, I will email her and let her know.