Copyrights on public domain scores

• Nov 20, 2020 - 03:31

This may not be the right forum to discuss this, but I thought I would start here. I am wondering about copyrights for pieces that are in the public domain. I did a little research and it appears that if you create a "derivative" work of a piece of music, you can copyright the derivative work as your own. When I say, "derivative" work I am talking about two types, in particular. (1) an arrangement of a piece (e.g. that 1970's disco song "Beethoven's Fifth"). (2) I have always been interested in "mashup" pieces where someone takes two or more pieces of public domain music and mashed them together to form a "new" piece of music (e.g. "Hooked on Classics"). My research did not give examples of these exact types of derivative works. They mostly talked about derivative works of music that are STILL under copyright.
Does anyone have any information if it is possible to copyright derivative works like the examples?
Thanks


Comments

In reply to by Shoichi

Thanks Shoichi, however, I am talking about the exact opposite of what your links are discussing. The links are discussing copyrights on music that is NOT in the public domain. I am talking about can I put a copyright on a music arrangement where the original music is in the public domain.

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