The Open Hymnal Project uses copyright law of the United States of 
America.  In other countries, it is your responsibility to verify each 
hymn as being freely distributable.

Four parts of a hymn are copyrightable:
Music (melody)
Setting (also known as arrangement or harmony)
Words (original language)
Translation (if applicable)

Each of these parts holds a separate copyright status, and must be 
considered individually.

Most of the hymns in the Open Hymnal are in the public domain in all 
four of these parts.  Some are not.  Specific copyright terms are listed
on each score sheet and in each abc file.

All content produced specifically by the Open Hymnal which is not a part
of a hymn is placed into the public domain.  This includes compilation,
indices, web pages (or parts thereof), scripts used to assemble the 
hymnal, and all other data files.  Work from other open source projects 
is not our copyright and remains copyright of the respective owners.  
This includes but is not limited to the "Zebra Tables" script by David S. 
Miller used on the web pages, which remains copyright of David S. Miller.