[ot] Copyright on old hymns and national anthems

[8O]

Hi,

Maybe someone on here knows the answer - couldn't find a definitive answer on Google, am happy for someone to point me in the direction of a better search string with lmgtfy...

I want to find out whether old British hymns and traditional songs - both the melodies and the words - are still copyrighted or could I, for example, sell a product which has both printed - notation and words. As far as I know all the songs are over 100 years old. Same question for national anthems.

Maybe someone on here just knows the answer straight off...

Cheers!

[gurumonkey]

if i were you i would search the hymns/songs that you are looking for and see if they show up in a public domain site. if they do, they're good to go.

even if you don't, i think that you're perfectly legal.

[UKRuss]

I think you'll find the copyright is owned by someone, even on the old stuff.

[8O]

Hmmm... let's take a specific, and probably most modern, example: Flower of Scotland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_of_Scotland)... "It was written by Roy Williamson of the folk group, The Corries, and presented in 1967"

If I search for "flower of scotland" "public domain", for the words, I get http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/flow ... tland.html which says "This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history." And for the tune, I get http://www.therealviperpiper.com/forum/ ... php?t=1481 (Public Domain Tunes).

Is this good enough, just some random websites? Or is there an official register to check?

[gurumonkey]

if it was written by a guy in 1967 then it will be under his copyright extending until after he dies.

many old hymns and folk songs are officially public domain. it's one of the reasons that so many artists put out christmas albums, the songs are theirs to use with no royalties.

[gurumonkey]

i should ammend that. it's possible that the author has given the song to the people, making it public domain before the copyright expired.

[8O]

Ta. Yeah, the guy from The Corries who wrote the tune died 20 years ago...

Ok, I guess I'll have to just get as much info on each song and see how it goes... apart from getting sued for thousands of pounds, what's the worst that could happen...