Are derivatives of public domain works copyrightable?

Question

This website claims his pdf files are copyrighted
http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/index.cfm
can they be if they are derived from public domain sheet music?
Is scanning a public domain work good enough to be considered a derived work?

Answer 1

The web site says they're copyrighting their PDA files of *editions* of public domain classical music. That's an important distinction.

Let's remember that most "classical" music, by the modern definition of the term, was written at a time when modern publishing as we know it today did not exist yet. Yes, the printing press had been invented by then, but in those days you had to do all the music engraving manually, and that was tedious and time-consuming by today's standards. Music engravers had to work from the composer's original copy, or a secondary copy that the composer prepared, and in any case the legibility of the composer's notation in the autograph score varies from composer to composer. So there were bound to be some mistakes in the printing process back then. Sometimes composers didn't even have the time to proofread the first editions themselves.

Nowadays we have music editors who have studied these composers' music development methods and go through these various existing editions of the scores to determine what the composer's intention was. Some editors may have differences of opinion in this regard, in some cases because the autograph score has been lost, in others because the autograph score is in a museum too remote to make study of it practical. As a result we've have more than one edition of a piece of music published over the decades and centuries, each edition reflecting a different editorial opinion. So each modern edition is copyrightable, even if the work it was based on is in the public domain.

Answer 2

In this particular instance I don't think this website has a strong case, as they have merely scanned in arrangements of sheet music that were once under copyright, but no longer are.

If, however, he had made his own arrangements, or created a new layout, or added new dynamics, fingering, etc, he would be able to claim copyright for that particular "edition" of the work

Answer 3

The derivations are copyrightable, not the underlying works.

In other words, the only think that can be protected is the changes made to the underlying work. But anyone else can start from the underlying work and make their own changes, even similar ones, as long as it is an act of independent creative expression.

Answer 4

Let's get real! Anyone who publishes on the web and thinks any claims to copyright are going to be respected or supported by common law is living in La La Land.

Answer 5

Coragryph's answer sounds right, derivatives can copyrighted in their own right. If you really need to know, contact a good music lawyer with a specially in copyright law.