Sheet Music Arrangements

accidentprone1

What rights does someone have to arrangements of copyrighted music. eg a string quartet arrangement of a Metallica song, made by a member of the quartet.

I did a little searching online and I found out that obviously the arranger can't make money from the arrangement without prior permission from the copyright holder.

However, does the arranger have copyright over his arrangement of the song? What happens if another person lays claim to the same arrangement?
What happens if in this example, Metallica come along and try and claim the arrangement?

coylemj

accidentprone1 wrote: »

However, does the arranger have copyright over his arrangement of the song?

Can't see how he could for the simple reason that it would be impossible to define the boundaries around such an arrangement within which a copyright could be enforced.

Say there is the original arrangement as penned by the composer. Your hypothetical arranger comes up with an alternative arrangement B, then a third person comes up with an arrangement similar to B which we'll call version C. How can anyone say that copyright subsists in B to the extent that C is so close to it as to amount to a breach of copyright? It would be a practical impossibility to enforce because you couldn't define or quantify the boundaries of arrangement B.