Re: Project on Yizkor book

[Marvin Margoshes <physchem...>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Kame'a Media <media (at) kamea(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant. <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Monday, May 24, 1999 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: Project on Yizkor book


>Marvin:
>
>Can you elaborate, please?
>
>The last time I checked, U.S. copyright (in the case of songs, anyway)
>extended up until 50 years after the death of the last
>writer/composer(s).
>Are you saying this has now automatically been amended to 75 years?
>If so, it would mean that a lot of musicians and record companies now owe
>
>the estates of deceased writers and composers a lot of royalties.
>Plus the printed information regarding copyright notices on a lot of
>future re-issues will have to be amended.
>
>What happens to, say, all the  material that  has been categorized as
>Public Domain ( after the 50 -year  period) but is still within the
>75-year timeframe?
>Does it fall out of Public Domain and back into private ownership?
>
>
>Or does the new 75-year period only affect new work published after a
>certain date?
>
>How does this affect the use of material created  by writers who were
>based in countries other than the U.S.  and whose songs were published
>and/or registered with "foreign" performing rights societies, --  when
>used  by
>U.S. artists and record companies today?
>
>Thanks in advance for any clarifications.
>
>Wolf Krakowski
>
>Kame'a Media
>www.kamea.com
>(Now with MP3 soundclips.)

For authoritative information, go to the U.S. Copyright Office's Web site at
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/.  The information I found there is that the
basic copyright for work authored after 1975 extends for 70 years from the
death of the author, or of the last to die of multiple authors.  In some
cases, it extends for the shorter of 95 or 120 years after publication.

The requirement of publication after 1975 seems to resolve your concern
about huge amounts owed to authors, since for publication before then the
shorter term of copyright applies.




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