Shostakovich - Copyright

[Dave2002]

I found this, which surprised me - http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Shostakovich,_Dmitry

which contains the following text:

All works of this composer are under copyright worldwide and may not be uploaded.

ANY FILES UPLOADED WILL BE DELETED IMMEDIATELY!
You are still welcome to add any information you have on this composer, however.

Works by Shostakovich cannot be uploaded to IMSLP until 2026.

I just wonder why 2026 is the earliest date.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Under European copyright, it would be 2046, but perhaps it's different in Russia.

[johnb]

I found this, which surprised me - http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Shostakovich,_Dmitry

which contains the following text:

All works of this composer are under copyright worldwide and may not be uploaded.

ANY FILES UPLOADED WILL BE DELETED IMMEDIATELY!
You are still welcome to add any information you have on this composer, however.

Works by Shostakovich cannot be uploaded to IMSLP until 2026.

I just wonder why 2026 is the earliest date.

Fifty years after his death (plus one for safe measure as he died in Aug '75) ?

[Nick Armstrong]

Fifty years after his death (plus one for safe measure as he died in Aug '75) ?

I think it's because it's in copyright until the end of the relevant year - i.e. out of copyright just after midnight on the 1 January of the following year...

But I share Dave's surprise - my understanding is that it should not be 50 years, indeed, but 70 - assuming we're talking about scores.

Sound recordings have a different copyright 'tariff' and I think that's 50 years.

Copyright is a minefield and I try and stay as far away from it as I can!

Under European copyright, it would be 2046, but perhaps it's different in Russia.

I think it's harmonised with the rest of Europe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries'_copyright_lengths#mediaviewer/File:World_copyright_terms.svg

[ahinton]

I think it's because it's in copyright until the end of the relevant year - i.e. out of copyright just after midnight on the 1 January of the following year...

But I share Dave's surprise - my understanding is that it should not be 50 years, indeed, but 70 - assuming we're talking about scores.

Sound recordings have a different copyright 'tariff' and I think that's 50 years.

Copyright is a minefield and I try and stay as far away from it as I can!






I think it's harmonised with the rest of Europe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ight_terms.svg

That's my understanding as well; 50 years for performances/recordings and 70 for scores. That said, I do recall that much music written under the Soviet régime is Russia seemed not to get itself copyrighted at the time and the minefield to which you rightly ascribe copyright was (and indeed may still be) an even greater one where much 20th century Ruussian music is concerned. If, however, Russia has indeed now come within the general European rules (and I don't know whether or not that's the case), then the 70 year rule should apply to scores.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Isn't ISMLP an American-based company? Does the States still use the 50-year rule?

[Dave2002]

Isn't ISMLP an American-based company? Does the States still use the 50-year rule?

Is that relevant? Doesn't copyright go with the country of origin or of publication, which I assume would be somewhere in the former Soviet Union. What the appropriate time period is in such a case, and from which event (death of artist, date of first publication etc.) I do not know. Also jurisdiction would be important, though the notion of worldwide copyright (as expressed in the particular web page) only works if it is possible to seek legal redress for any infringement, and also to receive appropriate compensation if necessary. A lot of situations in many jurisdictions are subject to laws which are in practice almost useless because of a complete lack of appropriate enforcement.

[kea]

I just wonder why 2026 is the earliest date.

Yes, I see no reason it shouldn't be 1976.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is that relevant? Doesn't copyright go with the country of origin or of publication

Not necessarily - the United States refused to enter any international copyright agreements for quite a lot of the Twentieth Century (if during the composer's lifetime, an American orchestra recorded or performed any of Stravinsky's "Russian" works, then the orchestra would get paid, the conductor would get paid, the recording company would get paid, the publisher of the semi-pirated scores and parts would get paid, the management of the concert hall would get paid - the only individual who didn't get any money was Stravinsky himself). Writers and authors had to go through a complicated system of double copyright - separate deals with European and American publishers - if they wanted payment for their work from American sales.

I don't know if this is still the case - hence my question; if the US has its own time period of protected copyright, does European Law have any force there? AFAIK, they couldn't legally export cheap copies of Shostakovich's scores to Europe after 2025, but American citizens (and European visitors prepared not to declare possessing these cheap scores at Customs) would be free to buy them - or download them at no cost from sites such as ISLMP.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes, I see no reason it shouldn't be 1976.

Yeah, that's right: let the widow starve to death, the freeloading parasite.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

US Copyright Law is complicated - a quick check with Wiki gives the information that

Works created in or after 1978 are extended copyright protection for a term defined in 17 U.S.C. § 302. With the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, these works are granted copyright protection for a term ending 70 years after the death of the author. If the work was a work for hire (e.g., those created by a corporation) then copyright persists for 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever is shorter.
Expansion of U.S. copyright term (assuming authors create their works at age 35 and live for seventy years)
The § 302 term above also applies to works created before 1978 that were not yet published or registered prior to 1978, with the exception that such copyrights would not expire before 2003. Prior to 1978, works had to be published or registered to receive copyright protection. Upon the effective date of the 1976 Act (January 1, 1978) this requirement was removed and these works received protection despite having not been published or registered. However, Congress intended to provide an incentive for these authors to publish their unpublished works. To provide that incentive, these works, if published before 2003, will not have their protection expire before 2048.

Works published or registered before 1978 currently have a maximum copyright duration of 95 years from the date of publication, if copyright was renewed during the 28th year following publication[39] (such renewal was made automatic by the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992; prior to this the copyright would expire after 28 years if not renewed). The date of death of the author is not a factor in the copyright term of such works.

All copyrightable works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain;[40] works created before 1978 but not published until recently may be protected until 2047.[41] For works that received their copyright before 1978, a renewal had to be filed in the work's 28th year with the Library of Congress Copyright Office for its term of protection to be extended. The need for renewal was eliminated by the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, but works that had already entered the public domain by non-renewal did not regain copyright protection. Therefore, works published before 1964 that were not renewed are in the public domain. With rare exceptions (such as very old works first published after 2002), no additional copyrights will expire (thus entering the public domain) until at least 2019 due to changes in the applicable laws.


So, it could be (and this is only a suggestion, a speculation) that unless Shostakovich had a publishing agreement with an American publisher (or, presumably, the American branch of Boosey & Hawkes) then his work may become available for free downloading 50 years after his death (2025) in the US, as this was the agreement at the time the work became available???

[kea]

Yeah, that's right: let the widow starve to death, the freeloading parasite.

"Life or 25 years, whichever is longer, non-renewable" seems like a sensible policy to me, so that publishers would have a better incentive to publish works by composers nearing the end of their lives (and the family could use these works as an insurance policy of sorts—though not in perpetuity).

Life+50 or life+70, however, makes no sense. The public good is more important than the good of a small number of corporations (because let's be realistic, most of the money we pay for Shostakovich scores and recordings is not going to his family).

[Pabmusic]

Copyright law is complicated and varies from country to country. IMSLP (see original post) is Canadian, so is under Canadian law, which is still life + 50 years. However, if they publish something that is still copyright elsewhere (at least, in a country where someone might take action ) then they could be liable if it can be accessed in such a place. Shostakovitch had many publishers (Boosey & Hawkes, for instance) who will try to enforce their right to life + 70 years.

You get some anomalous situations. In the USA, anything published before 1923 is out of copyright, at least if the owner didn't renew the copyright, regardless of when the composer died. I have bought scores of many early RVW pieces from America - The Wasps incidental music, Five Mystical Songs, the London Symphony in its 1920 guise, and many more. All of them were reprints by Kalmus or Luck's.

But Happy Birthday To You is still in copyright, both in the USA and Europe. The owner renewed the copyright, so it didn't lapse in 1923. Patty Hill (who wrote it) died in 1946. So it will be out of copyright in Europe from New Year's Day, 1917. No doubt the Americans will manage to keep it for much longer.

[PJPJ]

Anomalous situations in the US.......

Robert von Bahr of BIS has written several times about US copyright rules. When he releases an SACD with music in copyright, he has to pay the fees three times over, for the CD, SACD stereo and SACD surround portions of the one disc. Makes it an expensive business.

[CallMePaul]

Not necessarily - the United States refused to enter any international copyright agreements for quite a lot of the Twentieth Century (if during the composer's lifetime, an American orchestra recorded or performed any of Stravinsky's "Russian" works, then the orchestra would get paid, the conductor would get paid, the recording company would get paid, the publisher of the semi-pirated scores and parts would get paid, the management of the concert hall would get paid - the only individual who didn't get any money was Stravinsky himself). Writers and authors had to go through a complicated system of double copyright - separate deals with European and American publishers - if they wanted payment for their work from American sales.

I believe this, rather than any musical reasons, is why Stravinsky produced (and copyrighted worldwide) the 1947 editions of his major Russian period works. Although opinion is divided on the merits of the 1947 Petrushka where the changes are major[I]vis-a-visI] the 1911 version, most critics greatly prefer Stravinsky's originals.