Tim Dunnington wrote:
> I've taken and re-arranged Barber's Adagio for organ, violin and
> clarinet, for use at church.
[...]
> When does an arrangement become your own?
It becomes copyrightable as soon as there's enough originality there.
That's a sort of "when it does" answer; but from the sound of things, what
you've done would be way over the limit in most countries - definitely
your own work.
> How does one copyright and publish an arrangement of someone else's
> work?
It's automatically copyrighted just by being created. If you want people
to know, then write "copyright Fred Bloggs, 2000" on it. If you want to
be able to *prove* that it was your idea when someone tries to steal it,
then you have to create evidence that it exists - sending yourself a copy
by recorded mail may be sufficient.
To publish an arrangement of work to which someone else holds the
copyright, you have to get their permission. Similarly, if they want to
publish your arrangement, they have to get your permission. Everybody
who has a copyright on some of what's in there has to consent.
> Is there a GNU music license out there?
There isn't - the GNU project considers music, novels, films etc, to be
beyond its scope. (Though not related programs, such as Lilypond).
There's various other licenses used for music - have a look in this
mailing list's archives, March this year, under the thread "Mutopia
License", to see many of them discussed.
Regards,
--
David
