Klarinet Archive - Posting 000174.txt from 2007/06

From: Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: Copyright
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:07:08 -0400

On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:19:27 +0100, "Keith Bowen"
<bowenk@-----.com> wrote:
> This isn't quite right. Copyright in the USA (except for certain commercial
> works, don't mess with Disney) expires 70 years after the death of the
> composer. So a piece written in 1924 by say Richard Strauss is most
> certainly still in copyright.
>

No, this is not correct. There is a magic transition date in here. The
"life plus 70 years" rule only applies to works first published after
1977. There is the "old" law, and the "new" law. At the time the law
changed, stuff created prior to 1923 (or near that) had already slipped
into the public domain, and once there, it couldn't be put back into the
bottle.

So, in the US, anything copyrighted prior to 1923, no matter when
composer died (and even if not dead), is now public domain.

--
Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

------------------------------------------------------------------