This discuss has me thinking that there are two conflicting needs at work here. On one hand, as pointed out by John and others, there are already fields in place where copyright related information can be included. On the other hand, represented by Laura and whoever it was that started off this thread, there is a desire to format the output of abc files in a specific way so as to include the copyright information in a manner comparable to how it is formatted on printed sheet music.
I was reminded in this of the similarity in the evolution of abc and html. With html, browsers came into existence that formatted tags in a specific, proprietary, and often conflicting way -- i.e., Netscape and Explorer had differing ways to display given tags. Similarly, there are many abc programs in existence that have varying ways of handling and displaying the same abc tune. We're never going to get anywhere in this discussion because we all have different preferences for how the output of an abc file is handled. abc, like html, is meant to be a language for encoding the content, not for specifying the presentation. In web pages, there is an ever growing movement to separate the content from the presentation -- html (or xml) for the content and cascading style sheets for the presentation of the content. With two different style sheets, the same html can be displayed completely differently according to the wishes of the author. So how about the creation of a style sheet language to overlay on top of abc itself? >>>>>> "John" == John Chambers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > John> This is the main advantage of that little circle-c in a C or Z line. > John> In the C line, it says that the composition itself is copyright by > John> the composer; in the Z line, it says that the transcription (but not > John> the music) is copyright by the transcriber. A copyright symbol on a B > John> or D line similarly tells you who owns rights to the book or > John> recording, although they may not own the tune itself. > > This is a nice theory. > > Unfortunately, the way the abc printing programs I know anything about > deal with the C: line doesn't correspond to the way any printed music > I know of would actually print a copyright. That is, what you expect > printed music to have is something like: > > Title > Composer name > > <first page of music> > > (c) date Composer name > > If I say in my ABC: > > C: Laura Conrad (c) 2003 > > it's not going to print that way. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
