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I'm working on a sheet music app (wonderwarp.com/opus) and it's been irritating to discover how much old music is still under copyright. Like, pretty much the e

• eggoa 17y ago
  Just to clarify, the issue in this article isn't exactly expiration or lapse, it's just the possibility of transferring ownership.
• pbhjpbhj 17y ago
  Sheet music is another outlier, rights holders convinced the legal establishment that there is significant work and art in the particular engraving (the style used to print the music) allowing rights on the engraving of many works that are out of copyright. This means that much sheet music can be transcribed legitimately but can't be directly copied (photocopy, scan and reprint, etc.). Check not only the copyright dates on the particular scores but also the production dates for the music itself - the number of changes to copyright law (particularly in USA) in the 1900s make it a minefield. Apologies that you probably know this already.