To be pedantic, with respect to what dhbailey wrote, in part, in
response to Dean Estabrook:
The HAM is copyrighted, renewed in 1974 by Alice Humez and Willi Apel.
What they're claiming copyright on however is open to debate since the
works in the book were written long enough ago to be in the public
domain. Is their copyright in the collection itself? Is it in the
editions/modernizations of the different works in the collection?
There is no doubt that H & A are entitled to copyright in their notes,
nor is there any doubt that they are entitled to copyright in the
collection. However, even if they are entitled to copyright in the
collection, they are not entitled to copyright in any of the individual
items contained in the collection. Any public domain item in the
collection is in the public domain, and does not again become copyright
by virtue of inclusion in the collection. The question of
modernizations ("editing") they may have done is less settled. Clef
changes would probably not be considered copyrightable editing by the
courts; if they added "musica ficta", those probably would be. If they
normalized the spelling and punctuation of the Latin texts, that would
probably not be considered to rise to the level of copyrightable
additions; if they added underlay not present in the original, but which
a performer of the time would have been expected to fill in, that may be
copyrightable. And if, in the collection, or the notes, the specified
what changes they made in the original, as many scholarly editions do,
then one can "back out" the editorial changes, and recreate the public
domain original.
The only real way to find out the status of one of the works in such a
collection is to consult a copyright attorney. Copyright holders
often claim copyright in things they don't actually have copyright
in. Only the legal system can give the correct answer, and often
that's wrong, too. That's what appeals courts are for. ;-)
I would say that the only real way to find out the status of the works
in the collection is to challenge the copyright in court. Unless a
specific copyright has been successfully sustained in a court challenge,
even the copyright attorney is offering a personal opinion.
ns
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