[78-L] copyright, thoughts

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Rice" <bobrice at snet.net>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Christopher Steward" <chris.1picc at yahoo.co.uk>
>> 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 If I include recordings originally made in the USA,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
>  Hi Chris;
>    I THOUGHT of that several years asgo with random 78 selections, like a
> WW1 discography? Got a lotta records fronm that era. At that time I was
> disuaded from doing it as folks THOUGH I might be running afowl of 
> Victor's
> rights? Although I remember surfing into record sites and being able to
> listen/download songs and MANY saying "Public Domain" there., but of late
> with the "music" I use the termn loosley, biz TRYING to copyright 
> everything
> fron Edison's "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on up? I mean WHO would give a 
> Rat's
> Exhaust Pipe IF you reissued stuff off Victor, or the "Complete 1922 Grey
> Gull in Philly Collection?" As things are a bit murky here?WHO would own, 
> a
> Madison, or Any OTHER of the forgotten labels and bands, in my collection.
> WHY somebody might , with some of them<g>?
>    I would think just "Go Ahead" and IF anybody objects ya STOP?I mean, 
> yur
> working with folks on here would appreciate the stuff?Nobody would blow 
> the
> whistle on ya?Like what do I know<g>?
>
Sadly, EVERY record ever made in the US Of A is currently protected...NOT
by copyright, but by an accumulation of (usually) State laws intended to 
stop
"piracy" (the illegal copying and pressing of already-extant sound 
recordings).
Since many, if not most, of these laws lack specific terms and/or expiry 
dates,
they would keep sound recordings un-reissuable forever; however, the US
Government decided to replace this legal mish-mosh with copyright
effective 1/1/2067, putting most of these recordings into the public domain!

Now...many (NOT most) 78rpm sound recordings are legally controlled by
a handful of companies; BMG-Sony own the Victor "archives" along with
all the ARC companies (via CBS) and Decca is presumably MCA (or
their descendant[s]). Note that many of the "Indie labels" of the twenties
and the post-WWII period no longer HAVE copyright owners...nevertheless
Sonny Bono's laws prevent them from reissue...!

So far here in Canada we still use the 50-year term; the last attempt at a
revised "Copyright Law" did NOT change the term (it "died" before
passage because it wasn't passed before the Parliamentary term had
ended...!)

Steven C. Barr