Re: [ARSCLIST] NYT Editorial: The Coming of Copyright Perpetuity

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

At 03:18 PM 1/18/2003 -0500, stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "James L Wolf" <jwol@xxxxxxx>
> > European companies may freely re-issue classic American jazz and country
> music
> > and this does not seem to have an effect on Congress. Rather the big
> > companies are, from what I hear, attempting to shut down  Europe's
> > Public Domain.
> Interestingly enough, one need not even leave the continent! Here in Canada
> the
> laws and terms of the British Commonwealth apply, which means that we can
> legally reissue any recording made before January 1, 1953! "Push will come
> to
> shove" on 12/31/2004, when the first of the Elvis Presley recordings become
> p.d. in Europe and Canada. Will BMG try to do for recordings what Disney
> Studios did for films? We shall see...

It is not clear that those will be PD at that time. The key may be 75 years
after the death of the author or composer, whichever died later. Remember,
those were original songs. If they are not original compositions, then have
they been changed enough to restart the clock?

Of course, there is compulsory licensing for that aspect of copyright.

Mike
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/