Arrangement Copyrights?
So I'm aware of the copyright laws on composition (US: 70 yrs from date of composition, EU 70 yrs from date of composers death I believe) but I'm wondering if the arrangements of a public domain piece are also subject to copyright?
For example, if I take Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Dm and arrange it for 3 kazoos and a tuba and publish that on MuseScore, is my arrangement copyright protected? If so, to what extent? Specifically the 3 kazoo and tuba version or the actual notes of the arrangement. In other words, what if my arrangement was taken and played as written but by a string quartet...still protected?
This is really just a hypothetical as I don't honestly believe my arrangements are so mind blowingly fantastic that they would be borrowed/appropriated/stolen, but I think copyright law is fascinating and figured this would be a great place to raise the arrangement question :-)
Thanks!
Comments
Anything you create, which is building on public domain content, can be licensed by you in any way you want. Whether you can enforce the copyright on your work is another question though.
This is a very good question and leads to one of the first lessons I learned in copyright. There is the Authorship copyright and the Mechanical copyright. One protects the composition and the other protects the performance. If you are an author you should aim to get both, the priority being the authorship and then the mechanical, if that fits your budget. If you record a public domain piece, you file for a mechanical copyright which protects the broadcasting of your performance of that work.
As to the specifics of an arrangement. This could fall into a grey area between the authorship and mechanical. Download the basic form at the U.S. Copyright site and study it. You may need both.
Interesting...I suppose in this hypothetical that if someone took my 3 kazoo and a tuba arrangement and made their own recording without my permission a potential lawsuit would depend on what they did with that recording. If they only posted it on youtube or Bandcamp or their own website for free download with no monetary gain the main question is, where are the damages? They're not making any money from it. OTOH, if they released the piece on an album they sold, the damages are more obvious.
To take things a step further into the absurd, if they took my arrangement and replaced the 3 kazoo's and a tuba with a theremin, didgeridoo, ocarina and timpani would I even be able to recognize the piece as the notes I arranged? If so, couldn't they argue that changing the instrumentation effectively changes the arrangement so there is no infringement?
In reply to Interesting...I suppose in by WytchCrypt
So here's the bottom line according to legalzoom:
"If the original music is in the public domain, a new arrangement of that work would be entitled to copyright protection as a derivative work. As with new arrangements based on copyrighted works, the copyright of the arrangement protects only the changes or additional original creation of the new arranger. Even though the original work is in the public domain, copyright protection still does not cover the original work upon which the arrangement is based."
So according to this, an arrangement of a public domain work IS entitled to copyright protection as a "derivative work". The article also says that copyright eligibility begins, "from the moment it is either recorded in audio format or written in sheet music".
Good to know...of course enforcing copyright is another can of worms :-)