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Question about Frederick Chopin...


Ziomster04

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Well, the point of this topic is to ask a question about Frederick Chopin's songs, and the reason I've started one here is I didn't find any other more-fit categories in the forums.

 

Well... does anyone know if Frederick Chopin's (maybe also Mozart's, Beethoven's, and Bach's) songs are copyrighted by any company right now? I was thinking of creating a new radio station for Fallout 3 that included many of his pieces, but I am not sure if it alright, and I didn't find anything on google whether or not his songs are copyrighted. Nothing at all, nothing, zip, nada :P

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Editions published after the expiration of copyright

Soon after the expiration of Chopin's copyright the majority of renowned European publishing companies took advantage of the opportunity for free copying of Chopin's works and flooded the market with new editions. Given the abundance of such publications their presentation in chronological order would be everything but easily readable. It seems more adequate to study this production according to the editorial tendencies that they represent.

 

same applys to the others as well,make your station!

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Well, the point of this topic is to ask a question about Frederick Chopin's songs, and the reason I've started one here is I didn't find any other more-fit categories in the forums.

 

Well... does anyone know if Frederick Chopin's (maybe also Mozart's, Beethoven's, and Bach's) songs are copyrighted by any company right now? I was thinking of creating a new radio station for Fallout 3 that included many of his pieces, but I am not sure if it alright, and I didn't find anything on google whether or not his songs are copyrighted. Nothing at all, nothing, zip, nada :P

Most of the classics (works created before the 1900s) are not copy written because there were no major laws which covered music from those days. If someone stole your songs, you usually just broke their fingers or had them killed (good times). Since there was no recordable media, any theft was done mostly by other composers.

 

Copyright law is actually quite funny. When it was established, there were clauses so that works which were once protected would eventually become open to free usage, with the intentions being that individuals could no longer lay sole claim to those works for the purposes of business, and instead would need to seek out new works. However, in more recent years, this sort of grandfathering clause has been getting prevented in the case of works which have become a mainstay of a company, like Disney, who's icon, a certain mouse, was up for becoming public domain sometime in the next few years. As it stands now, that won't happen untl 2030 or so due to some arm twisting in congress. The same is true for works from Elvis, the Beatles, and many of the big names of the 30s and 40s.

 

Anyway, atleast in this case, I don't believe it is protected since it is taught in music classes, played in concert halls, and can be downloaded online without any digital rights management. Fortunately things like this were already widespread enough, and their owners were long dead before greed became an issue.

 

http://www.chopinmusic.net/en/home/

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Alright, thank you for the help! And tell me about it, copyright is funny indeed, as songs recorded by Louis Armstrong (i.e. Fallout 2 Theme) are still copyrighted desite the fact the poor guy died a while ago :/ Some UMG group claims it now... lol.

 

Alrighty then, sometime soon (or not?) there should be a Classic Song station of some sort, not sure of the name yet :)

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as songs recorded by Louis Armstrong (i.e. Fallout 2 Theme)

That wasn't that long ago, and he, or those managing his estate, was certainly alive recently enough to protect his works. Once protected, a work gets something like 60 years where the owner has sole decision of who can reproduce, use, or show those works. After that, it is supposed to become unrestricted and open to use anywhere that anyone sees fit.

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Generally, if a song is more than 60-70 years old, its ok to use... i think the actual limit is something like 25 years (after which anyone can use it), but the music labels tend to throw a lot of money around to get things like that changed. The government tends to do a lot of the things they ask.. things such as extending copyright, introducing new anti-piracy laws, etc.
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Due to these complex situations I rather be a cavement o.0

 

Anyway, about the Classical Music (think that's what I'll call it) mod, I've already created it, but will publish it as part of my house mod (so that the house mod isn't too behind the other house mods ;P)

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