Re: bowing change in a long trill

[David Kastrup]

"B~M" <address@hidden> writes:

> Dear Rob thanks so much for your help and all the others that helped with
> my
> little questions. Thanks also for pointing out potential copyright issues.
> On this point, perhaps you can educate me. I've transposed several works
> Hindemith
> wrote for Violin to Viola (studies mostly). Is that a breach of
> copyright ?

Transposing?  No.  You can do what you want with your lawfully acquired
copy except publishing it, and of course public performances also need
to be registered and require licensing.  Hindemith died in 1963, so with
current EU copyright rules, his works will run out of copyright in 2033.

Or rather, whenever copyright _actually_ runs out since copyright
durations are expanded posthumously in a semiregular manner in order to
give Paul Hindemith a larger incentive for rising from the grave and
composing some more music, so far with little success.  But think of all
the music the public will gain once the zombie apocalyse strikes and all
composers rise from their graves and return from decomposing to
composing again.  And let's hope copyright durations will not be
prolonged by the raising of the dead, or you can bet the RIAA and its
ilk will be commanding the largest army of necromancers to be found
anywhere.

Anyway, until the copyright truly runs out, you may not create any
copies or derivatives you distribute to others, and you may not perform
in public without licensing payments.

> Further, if I take a piece like the Milhaud I posted and I edit it
> with fingerings and minor changes etc, is that also a breach ?

Milhaud died in 1974, so yes, any derivative work distributed to the
public without license is a breach of Milhaud's copyright.  Of course,
the fingerings and minor changes are copyrighted by yourself and may not
be published by anybody including Milhaud's heirs and publishers without
your explicit permission.  But since you cannot realistically publish
them without using content from the original work, that does not buy you
a lot.

> I guess these are complex questions for lawyers.

That's not really all that complicated.  As long as copyright is active,
you cannot do anything without permission except what the copyright laws
of your country grant you.  For practical reasons, most private use is
permitted in most jurisdictions since searching someone's house in order
to figure out whether he created private copies for his own use would
seem disproportionate.

Of course, even when the laws of your country permit private copies, the
copyright associations would like you to believe that any use they did
not explicitly want you to have is illegal, and they will try their best
with DRM schemes and root kits and whatever to keep you from using your
media for anything they do not want.

> In any case I best be careful with this issues.

Yes.  This mailing list definitely counts as "public".  Asking questions
about how to typeset one measure would usually be considered fair use or
de minimis.  But posting a full score for feedback would certainly not
be covered.

-- 
David Kastrup