[78-L] The Public Domain Review

[Thomas HENRY]

Hello,


I don’t know if some of you already came across The Public Domain Review
website (http://publicdomainreview.org)...


It’s an online journal dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the best of
public domain material found on the web. There’s an audio section on the
site (http://publicdomainreview.org/audio/), featuring various recordings
such as “*Adelina Patti singing The Last Rose of Summer* (1905)” (
http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/01/28/adelina-patti-singing-the-last-rose-of-summer-1905/),
“*James Joyce reading his works (1924/1929)*” (
http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/06/15/james-joyce-reading-his-work-19241929/)
or these “*Slovak folk songs (1928/1930)*” (
http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/02/18/slovak-folk-songs-192830/).


The team behind the site is about to launch a new section called the “PDR
Playlists”, in which the PDR works with music collectors to showcase
interesting public domain material from their collections. The post would
consist of a compilation of songs focusing on a particular genre, theme, or
period, or could be simply songs from one record - with a little bit of
accompanying text (if desired) giving a little bit of background to the
selection. There are about to publish my own contributions (recordings made
by French ethnographers in Congo and Gabon in the late 40’s) and they are
trying to find other people willing to share their records to a wider
audience. It’s a way to celebrate the preservation work done by us
collectors.



Regarding the legal aspect: the key thing is that these recordings must be,
at least somewhere in the world, in the public domain. Unfortunately no
recordings are public domain in the U.S. But in E.U. and many other
countries there are public domain recordings - for 2014, this is a song
that has been written and/or arranged (music and lyrics) by someone who
died prior to 1944, and recorded prior to 1964 (though this will most
likely change soon to 1944). E.g. A song written and arranged by Scott
Joplin (who died in 1917) and recorded in 1916 will be public domain in the
E.U. It doesn't matter if the recording is not public domain in your home
country, just as long as it is public domain somewhere in the world.


If you’re interested in taking part to this project or have any questions
regarding the legal aspect, you can contact directly Adam Green, the editor
of the Public Domain Review: adam.green at publicdomainreview.org.



Best wishes,



Thomas

http://ceintsdebakelite.com/