On Thu, 7 Aug 2003, Thomas Lemmens wrote: > > > Article 2�6 of this law provides a special case of copyright. It states > that everyone who, after the passage of copyright-protection for a work, > publishes this work in a legal manner for the first time or opens this > work in a legal manner for the public for the first time enjoys a > protection that is equivalent to the "exploitation rights" (in > Dutch "vermogensrechten") of the original author (for example the > right of reproduction, the right to open the work for the public > by way of live performances, television, internet and so on), but > only for 25 years. He does not acquire the "moral rights" (for > example the paternity of the creation).
Thank you, Thomas. Most of our type-sets of older music have to deal with this situation. The problems that arise is that the law is subject to interpretation. For instance, the new edition of Bach's works claims that copyright protection even though the works are not published the first time. The hard editorial work for reconstruction of the best version of the music must be honored, too. In this case I think the protection is justified. Nevertheless, it will be almost impossible to prove a copyright infringence if you make a new typeset, there are so many editions on the market and the deviations are small. If you correct an error, it is very likely that you reach the same solution as the New Bach Edition, there are not many alternatives. In many other cases, however, the publishing companies try to deter public typesets by pushing interpretations of the law that are at best questionable. I have seen a reprint of a Bruhns cantata that claimed that the customer acknowledged with his purchase that the cantata must be played only with the continuo realization of the editor, which is of course protected. Such a demand would not have any chance in court. There are threats from companies which payed for the right to reprint older editions and derived a new protection from that fact. In my opinion, the threats are toothless: the publisher would never risk an infringence suit. Their main concern are photocopies because it is easy to prove. I know that the German Gema, an institution that collects the fees for the editors and authors sends spies to choir festivals to investigate for illegal photocopies. What would happen if a company would indeed claim an infringence in our archive? I think it most likely that they would demand to erase it from the server and threat to sue if that demand is not met. I know that Werner never had a problem with the server and was liberal in accepting typesets. I would appreciate Christian's advice. Courage, mates! Christof _______________________________________________ TeX-music mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://sunsite.dk/mailman/listinfo/tex-music
