Well, leeneia, I think you are in the UK and I know for a fact the UK has very different copyright laws from the United States. Here, I have no doubt that Mr. Malone has the right to keep others from distributing scans or photocopies of his 2005 edition of Christian Harmony, or, the Songster's Companion, except in certain rather limited ways permitted by what is called the "Fair Use doctrine". One would have to have a copy of the 1805 edition before one's eyes in order to know for sure whether Malone held a copyright to any particular feature of his edition. The unavailability of such evidence is a major part of the topic of this thread, i.e., people want to see Ingalls' tune for the song but can't. I will post a scan of Malone's edition of Ingalls' tune, with Malone's permission, but I still have no way of knowing whether any particular part of it (except for the shape notation) is Malone's work. Now, if I hadn't sought his permission, he would have had to go to court to seek royalties or damages or whatever from me, if he wanted to; the US government doesn't go around enforcing copyright without the owner's complaining about infractions first. However, some web domain owners are very skittish on this subject, and might shut down my site where I posted the thing, or even ban me from creating anything in their domain, and then I would be the one who had to go to court if I wanted to assert my rights...

I agree that publishers frequently overstate their copyrights. My favorite is the Hal Leonard Christmas fakebook, where for example Hal Leonard Corporation asserts copyright in the melody line and first verse of "Silent night, holy night" (to STILLE NACHT)...

A marginal case might by Paul McCartney or whoever's "ownership" of "Happy Birthday to You". I don't think he (or whoever it was) owns the piece, but it could be a court case if someone really cared.