Re: Klezmer music preservation

[Sapoznik <Sapoznik...>]

The issue of "rights" of recordings are different than those of publishing. 
Recording mechanical rights are, depending on the status of the original 
record company, in perpetuity (for example: Sony now owns the full 
Columbia/CBS catalog while Bertelsmann owns Victor/RCA. Records issued by 
companies which are no longer in existance or were not acquired by larger 
extant companies, can be considered in the Public Domain. (This means all 
those groovy Yiddish 78s on Edison, Busy Bee, Indestructable, Grey Gull, 
etc.) 
Technically, record reissues have to be done with the written permission of 
the mechanical copyright holders. That is the implied legality as I have 
understood it.

Henry Sapoznik
Author
"Klezmer! Jewish Music
>From Old World to 
Our World" (Schirmer Books)

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