Fidelis Zitterbart's manuscripts probably are public domain, though at least one of them was first published posthumously (1938) and so may not be in the US, not sure. Manuscript copyright is subject to a law called editio princeps about which others can speak with better knowledge than I, but wanted to point out that not sure if you meant that since it's a manuscript it's PD (public domain)- but to say that basically no, that's not the case if so :) Anyhow cheers and thanks! Eric 00:15, 14 August 2011 (UTC)
Dear Eric Schissel: Since Zitterbart died in 1915 (I have facsimiles of obits dated the day after he died in that year), his unpublished manuscripts entered the U.S. public domain at "Life of the author plus 70" years for him (his having died before 1941) i.e., around the year 1985--this according to http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm . The handful of pieces published after his death (from what I know so far) were all edited by "W. K. Steiner" and published by "Edward Schuberth & Co., Inc." But the autographs of these pieces would still be U.S. pd because they are NOT edited, or so it seems to me. I hope to visit the U.S. copyright office soon to determine the status of these posthumous works. Thanks!
Editio princeps even causes issues with composers who died in 1450 (say) if the first ever publication-or-performance of a work of theirs was too recently- say in the last- actually, I think 25 years, depending on the country, so 1938 is prob. not a problem... ? I do not know...- this basically, if- if- I understand (and I am not sure I do)- means that uploading the manuscript of that work to IMSLP is at least restricted for various reasons and that the manuscript is no longer in the public domain. (If the first performance was during their lifetime, though, then performance counts as a form of publication, and the physical, written publication is no longer the "first publication" since it was performed much earlier. Like most law, it "gets complicated"- or else it wouldn't be law, I guess...) Eric 04:15, 14 August 2011 (UTC) (btw because of other USA laws, music first published in the US before 1923 is in the public domain in anycase- but that's another case and another issue etc.)
Dear John, Please use the link provided on the workpage for uploading files from Sibley. If you use another method, there is no way for the system to keep track of which files we already have from them. I'll fix (hopefully) the upload you did for Pyatnitsi, the collection of pieces issued by Belaieff by various composers in his catalogue for his Friday afternoon quartet rehearsals - hence the name, which means "Fridays" in Russian. Carolus 03:07, 26 January 2012 (UTC)
...Cannot be added by you to the main server. Had to delete your upload because it is not public domain in Canada. Carolus 07:27, 11 February 2012 (UTC)
