[78-L] European Sound Recording Copyright Extension

[Michael Biel]

Under the 1909 U.S. law, the copyright term was 28 years plus a 28 year 
renewal, which is 56 years.  The 1975 law went into effect in 1978, at 
which point things from 1922 had just gone into the P.D.  Thus 
"pre-1923" is the point for songs, books, photos, movies, etc.  So even 
though Irving lived longer than god, Alex's Rugtone Bund" is P.D.  All 
the songs from Yip Yip Yaphank are likewise P.D. which I suppose also 
includes "Oh How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning" but not God Bless 
America since he didn't copyright it until 1939.(Sheet music from the 
1950s and later show both 38 and 39, but early sheets only show 1939.)

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

On 9/15/2011 3:16 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> On 9/15/2011 3:07 PM, Kristjan Saag wrote:
>> David Lennick wrote:
>>> As far as I know, King Oliver compositions from 1924 on are still copyrighted.
>>> No "death + x years" there, unlike Europe and Canada. Irving Berlin and George
>>> Gershwin songs prior to 1924 are out of copyright in the US, period, but still
>>> protected here because Berlin lived a long time, as did Ira Gershwin..and for
>>> that matter, Irving Caesar (so Swanee still has years to go in Canada and Europe)
>> --
>> Wikipedia has published "prior to 1923" for out of copyright.
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_length
>> The US "death + 70 years" applies to works published since 1978 or
>> unpublished works, according to that chart.
>> Kristjan
> I'm certain that it was 1924..I believe that was done just in time to keep
> Rhapsody in Blue from falling into PD, and my (ex) lawyer was part of the team
> working with the Gershwin estate. But If anyone has more precise information
> (and Wiki is never the final arbiter) let's have it.
>
> dl