Re: Mutopia and copyright

[David Chan]

Chris Sawer wrote:
> Laurent Pelecq <address@hidden> wrote:
>> On another hand, I've read on http://www.pdinfo.com/ that works with a
>> copyright date prior to 1922 for US authors (or 1904 for most other
>> countries) are in public domain.
>
> An interesting site which I hadn't encountered before, however the
> exact quote is:
>
>=> Copyright Date Old Enough to Be in the Public Domain referred to as
>=> "PD Copyright Date" on this web site:
>=>
>=> United States and some other countries -  copyright notice of 1904 or
>=> earlier           ^^^^
>
> Mutopia is a truly international project, and we can't restrict
> ourselves to the copyright laws of one particular country. In fact, I
> live in England, and the main Mutopia server is in Canada. Contributors
> come from all over the world.
>
> The site you referred to has a distinct US bias, and has very little
> information on copyright laws in other countries, as far as I could see.

Yes; however, I believe that the Berne convention states that, for a work
first published in country X, if it is public domain in country X then it
is public domain in every Berne country.  Certainly, UK law implements it
like that: see 12(6) of the following:

http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1995/Uksi_19953297_en_3.htm#mdiv5

So, if the site was correct in claiming that piece P is out of copyright
in the US, *and* piece P was first published in the US, then we ought to
be OK.  However, I Am Not A Lawyer, and we have to be very careful; if
someone had half a case against us then they could make life unpleasant.

Thanks,
-- 
David