[78-L] Billboard charts

[Kristjan Saag]

Steven C. Barr quoted and wrote:

>> Of course as far as the majors are concerned, ALL of these are stolen
>> property, even those of the ones mastered off of 78s.
-- 
> In the US Of A, they are OF COURSE "stolen property"...NO sound
> recording will become "public domain" until 1/1/2067 (unless they amend
> the law to move the date even FURTHER forward...?!)
> In Canada and most of the rest of the world anything recorded prior to
> 1/1/1958 is P.D., which means the "theft victims"would have to prove
> that Membran had used specifically THEIR transfers, and the courts
> would have to decide if copying someone else's re-recording of a p.d.
> recording violates copyright...!
---
I guess we have to do with two kinds of theft here: first what is legally a 
theft: of copyrighted material, which, however, doesn't include sound 
restorations; second the moral aspect of using restored material without 
permission, profiting on other people's work.
We've yet to see, AFAIK, a case where this second kind of misuse legally 
becomes a theft.
Kristjan