Re: [Patch] Request for addition to the publications list

[Valentin Villenave]

On Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 10:53 PM, Jonathan Wilkes <address@hidden> wrote:
> That's an interesting article.

Thanks. Please do note that IANAL, obviously.

> Here's a question: if I made my own critical edition of
> "Rite of Spring" in Lilypond using various scores as source
> material, can I release that edition under a free license?  Or
> does that depend on how each individual source score I used to
> make it is licensed?

Well, for starters if you make any edition of "Rite of Spring", you're
likely to be prosecuted for counterfeiting (Universal Editions tend to
take this kind of things seriously, or so I was told).

Secondly, any edition you will use (even for a very short part, even
if you're just "remotely inspired by") is regarded as primary material
and for *each and every one* of these sources you'll have to (either):

a - request and pay for an authorization (which will, anyway, be
limited: for instance you may have permission to make a given number
of exact copies, but no derived work, and the copies you'll make won't
be redistributable)

b - make sure it's in the public domain (that means that the composer,
the publisher, the editor, his assistant, everyone and his cousin have
all been dead and buried for decades -- BUT also watch out for
copyright extensions that could have be bought since then by their
relatives, grandchilds etc.)

c - OR, if you happen to stumble upon a Creative-Commons-licensed
score that Stravinsky had himself typeset using GNU LilyPond version
-0.0.0.1-pre-pre-pre-alpha... then you may use it like a breeze, and
Bob's your uncle. (careful *which* CC license he chose, though).

Oh, and by the way, even if you *think* your all set, it may be legal
in your country but as soon as you'll post it online there's a good
chance it will be accessible from a country where it is not (I'm told
there's a little country called Sarkozistan that has very strange laws
in this regard).

Actually, I don't care that much for Stravinsky (after all, he could
have been your grandgrandfather). But when posthumous,
recently-discovered Chopin manuscripts are effectively proprietarized
by greedy publishers, now *that* just pisses me off.

Valentin

PS (Just for the gist of it: this article I wrote nearly got me sued
by the French music publishers' guild. IANAL, but somehing tells me I
better get studying law :-)