BigDave - 5:09 pm on May 25, 2005 (gmt 0)

You miss the point. A work (literary/musical/artistic/whatever) may be in public domain, but a publication/recording/photo/duplication of that work may not.

As far as I know, there is no copyright on fonts in the united states, and there is no typographical copyright in the united states.

The only protection you would receive would be on a derivative work, and I would be surprised if you could even get away with that when publishing reprints of public domain materials.

Recordings of songs are specifically covered in copyright law. In fact, an audio recording of the reading of a book would also be covered. But you have to go to europe to get that typographical copyright (25 year duration).

If anyone knows of any caselaw that disagrees with this, please post it.