IMSLP Forums

It has come to our attention that three scores by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji – Two Piano Pieces, Piano Sonata No. 1 & Piano Sonata No. 2 – have been uploaded to IMSLP.

We recognise and appreciate that IMSLP is especially diligent in matters of copyright and so we wish to note that these three works are all in copyright and that exclusive copyright is vested within The Sorabji Archive.

We will therefore appreciate their removal from IMSLP.

With thanks and kind regards,

Alistair Hinton
Curator / Director
The Sorabji Archive

You should contact the designated agent for "Notice and Takedown Procedure" as described here.

Please note that, if it is correct that these works were published before 1926, they are public domain in the US, where the relevant IMSLP server is located. I'm not sure that the "Notice and Takedown Procedure" can be invoked then.

Dear Alistair

We just checked these workpages and the works themselves and yes as Choralia has pointed out, these files are Public Domain in the United States, anything first published before 1926 (currently) can be uploaded directly to this server that we support on IMSLP (more than 95 years since publication). Yes the composer is under copyright in Canada and the EU (which we also support and the main server is in Canada which is Life + 50) but because once again as these works are Public Domain the United States, we can host them on there. So these works are not going anywhere despite your threat of a takedown notice, it will not be complied.

Thanks
Sallen112 (Copyright Administrator)

I will begin by questioning how "We will therefore appreciate their removal from IMSLP" in my previous pot above could be seen to constitute a "threat", as you describe it, but will overlook that for the time being.

It has now come to our attention that Sorabji's Trois Pastiches have been uploaded to IMSLP. Though composed in 1922, none was published before 1927; indeed No. 1 was published for the first time by the now defunct Music Treasure Publications in USA in 1969 and Nos. 2 & 3 were published for the first time by us in editions by Marc-André Roberge in 1992.

We believe that they should therefore be removed from IMSLP.

We look forward to your response. Please feel free to write to us at sorabji.archive@gmail.com .

Kind regards,

Alistair

Worldcat reports 1922 as the copyright date for this work:

It may be incorrect, however it's probably the reason why it is being considered as public domain in US.

Max

Read https://imslp.org/wiki/IMSLP:Copyright_Made_Simple. "In the US, Urtext editions are theoretically protected like any other work". e.g a Henle edition is not PD-US and the Pastiches were published ca. 1992.

The Worldcat entry is indeed incorrect, as the score itself demonstrates; the publication dates of these works are as stated above. For the record, neither publisher - Music Treasure Publications or The Sorabji Archive - was in existence in 1922! What governs PD status in USA is not the date of composition but that of first publication.

And the 1922 copyright deposit with a photocopy of the manuscript is not a publication.

Maybe it was publicly performed, or made available as a manuscript in a public library? This would count as "publication" in some jurisdictions, and thus determine a copyright date that is not related to the publication of printed copies of the score. Worldcat people have considered this perhaps?

Max

No performance of any of Trois Pastiches before the 1970s is known or documented and the manuscript found its way to a library where it still resides only some time after publication on No. 1 in 1969. Worldcat still therefore has it wrong.

I can find no registration for any of the three Pastiches in the U.S. Catalog of Copyright Entries in the 1920s. The 1969 publication of the Chopin Pastiche is taken from Thirteen Transcriptions for Piano Solo of Chopin's Waltz in D flat which was registered for copyright protection in 1969 (see: registration A142101). Renewal in the 28th year would have been automatic under the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992 so that publication won't be public domain in the U.S. until Jan. 1, 2065. Since the other two Pastiches appear to have been first published in 1992 with an editorial claim by Marc-André Roberge I can't see how they can be considered PD-US. In my opinion the three files should be removed.

I can only agree with that, because it is factual.