Music in public domain

I am doing some classical guitar scores for a website I'm working on. Many of them are from the barqoque era. Since no one owns a copyright on these. May I put copyright by mysite.net on the scores since I am the one transcribing them.


If I am not mistaken copyrights are good for around 80 years and then they become public domain.

Jt419oh

Just off the top of my head I think it's 75 years after the person dies, then it becomes public domain as long as nobody from the estate renews the copyright.
These days I'd double check just to be sure cause 75 years only takes you back to the 1930's. If it's actually public domain, I'm not sure about placing your own copyright... obviously you can't copyright the music, but maybe just the transcription?? Sorry, don't have a clue.

I'm just thinking about tunes like "Happy Birthday". It still has a copyright so that anytime anybody uses it they have to pay royalties. However I've never seen anybody copyright a transcription of the music except in the case of a book filled with musical scores, in which the entire book is copyrighted.

I see what you mean. I say to hell with the copyright on the score. Ain't that big of a deal anyways.

Thanks

Intellectual property is easy to get twisted.