[78-L] copyright

[Alan Bunting]

I am assuming that you will be publishing the resulting CD in Europe.  In this case, provided the recordings were first published in America before 1st January 1959 they are out of copyright in Europe.
 
Do remember though that this only applies to the recording - in most cases the music and lyrics will still be in copyright and composer royalties will be payable.
 
This makes the CDs perfectly legal in Europe but if they were exported to America and some other countries for sale by retailers you would risk being pursued by the American record companies as was Naxos who no longer distribute their historical series in the States. However, it is perfectly legal for Americans to buy them from European retailers as personal imports.
 
Also remember that all of this may change when the EU parliament decides this month whether or not to extend European recording copyright to 95 years - something that, despite all the evidence against it, now seems very likely to happen.
 
Alan Bunting

--- On Sun, 8/3/09, Christopher Steward <chris.1picc at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:



Hallo!
I would be grateful for advice about copyright. I want to reissue some 78s on a CD in Britain. If I include recordings originally made in the USA, are they subject to USA or British copyright law?
Thanks for any help,
Chris


      
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