Question about hymns/copyright

• Dec 11, 2018 - 18:46

I am going through some old hymns and came across He Who Would Valiant Be which was written by John Bunyan and, in the Trinity hymnal, is put to music composed by Charles Winfried Douglas. This was written in 1678 and the music was done in about 1917 (I think).

Would it be violating a copyright if I copy this out of the hymnal and put it on this site?

Comments

• Dec 11, 2018 - 18:53

IANAL, but usually all potential copyright holders (lyricist, composer, translator, arranger) need to be dead more than 70 years.
As far as I can see Charles Winfried Douglas died in 1944, so his copyright expired 4 years ago

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