Klarinet Archive - Posting 000175.txt from 2007/06

From: "Keith Bowen" <bowenk@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Copyright
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:27:31 -0400

Tim

Thanks for the correction. Isn't there some tangle about the pre-1977 works,
depending on whether or not they affixed a copyright notice to the work at
the time?

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: klarinet-return-91096-bowenk=compuserve.com@-----.org
[mailto:klarinet-return-91096-bowenk=compuserve.com@-----.org] On Behalf
Of Tim Roberts
Sent: 26 June 2007 00:07
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Re: Copyright

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.

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