You can't do that.  You added nothing of value, so you don't deserve

copyright, since your conversions do not count as being substantial.
Conversions of files remain under their existing rights, which means,

they are free, since the copyright expired.  Adding a copyright to

them is a lie.

There were no files.  I made up my own music file format.  I took some

hundred year old sheet music, and based on how I interpet it, I composed

my particular music files.  From my music files, I automatically

generate PDF sheet music, midi, ogg, and mp3.  The PDF sheet music is

not identical to the original sheet music.
The music itself is out of copyright.  But in the legal field, there are

cases that have established that copyright on public domain material can

apply to things like page numbers.
The classic example if the "Findlaw" company.  They index publicly

available court rulings.  The court rulings themselves cannot be

copyrighted, as they are public property.  But when a competitor copied

Findlaws product, they got smacked for copyright violation.  The court

found that the content was copyright-free, but the page numbers were

added by Findlaw, and constituted their "copyrighted" property.  This is

like someone copyrighting Strong's numbers, which are a sort of index to

the Bible.
My source for this information is Amicus Curia, a pro se lawyer and

paralegal operating in the state of Washington.  He has had running

battles with Findlaw, who periodically clobber their own legal software

to force you to buy upgrades.  Their product is the best in the field,

so all lawyers end up using it, fueling a monopoly in the field of legal

research.
In todays music industry, performers claim copyright when they record

themselves playing a piece of music, even if the music itself is out of

copyright.  I may not be a musician, but it took a certain amount of

skill to read the music, and enter it into the computer, and then make

the computer play it.  That is, it took skill and effort to create a

"performance".
As for "substantial" changes to the source; I separated tenor, soprano,

alta, and bass parts so they could all be listened to separately.  There

was no such separation in the original sheet music.  This sort of change

is at least on par with adding "page numbers" and an inde...
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Then as I understand it your interpretation is correct: the original

works are in the public domain, and your performance and derived works
If you truly wish to relinquish ALL rights then public domain is exactly

that. This is obviously the most free.
If additionally you wish to retain attribution only then

/usr/src/share/misc/license.template is a great choice. This is probably

the most free except for public domain.
If it bothers you if Microsoft uses your performance in a Vista ad then

you must pick something else. But now you are in a sticky place where

you want to share except when you don't. The available licenses are

tricky legalese, and finding one to match your motives is difficult and

the license may have consequences you don't anticipate.
--

Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD User Group  |  MetaBUG

dwchandler@stilyagin.com   |  http://phxbug.org/      |  http://metabug.org/

http://www.stilyagin.com/  |  Daemons in the Desert   |  Global BUG Federation

Printed sheet music of public domain content is indeed copyrightable.

The copyright does not apply to the content, but to the presentation.

This makes sense, because (at least with classical music) a lot of

effort goes into transcribing, researching the original manuscripts,

adding performance hints and typesetting [1].
I think that the above is also valid if you transcribe from old

sheet music instead of the original manuscripts, so I'd say that

you could copyright the PDF.
Since the midi, ogg and mp3 files reflect the pure content without

any human interpretation, I doubt that they are copyrightable.
I would publish the PDF with a preface, citing the original sources

and outlining the changes that were made. This is common practice.
If you then choose the standard copyright, people will still be

able to make their own compilations from your work.
If you want to encourage direct reuse, why not put the PDF into

the public domain and ask people to credit you if they make

modifications?
I wouldn't use any of the documentation licenses. Those licenses

are for works where you are the original creator, not for transcriptions.
Stefan Krah
[1] Unfortunately, the art of typesetting is on a steady decline, but that

is another topic.