Copyrights & Royalties

[Eliezer Kaplan <zelwel...>]

I'm working on a project which will involve samples and cut-ups of old Jewish 
music. Most of it is long out-of-print 78's that have been antholigized by 
various people in research, some of whom are actually list members. Now I know 
that as a 'DJ'  (the new Jewish Fatboy Slim ;-) I can get away with most 
anything in live performance- I'm just playing records for the people. My 
question is actually about publication i.e. actually creating new electro 
cut-and-paste work based on what I've done & putting it on a CD or web site. Is 
this going to involve tons of research to find out who-all's estate gets owed 
money (I can imagine the distribution issues can get quite complicated & I 
don't really want to get too involved in that- I'm not a big record company and 
I can't hire lawyers) or is there a one-stop-shop where I can look all this 
info up? Maybe the real question is how can I easily find out what's public 
domain and what isn't
                        ek