Re: [ARSCLIST] Fw: [78-l] (Fwd) Naxos Wins Landmark Case AgainstCapitol/EMI

[Karl Miller <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 9 Jun 2003, James L Wolf wrote:

>      Judge Robert W. Sweet declared in his summary judgement that
> Capitol did not own the rights to the EMI recordings it claimed. This
> was for at least three reasons. First and biggest, EMI was found to have
> waived their copyright claim to pre-1957 EMI recordings. Second, EMI of
> England only transferred it's rights to its recordings to Capitol (US)
> in 1996, after everything from 1946 and earlier had gone into the public
> domain in England. Third, Capitol had abandoned these copyrights anyway
> by allowing others to "bootleg" their recordings without taking action.

I have heard of the notion of abandonment in other decisions...oddly
enough when Mad Magazine was sued for using Alfred E. Newman "What, me
worry?'

I would wonder if that notion could be applied to broadcast performances.
While the Boston Symphony has gone after any unauthorized issues of
BSO broadcasts, that has not been true for other organizations like the
New York Philharmonic. And while the Metropolitan Opera has been more
careful in recent years, I can recall many bootlegs of their performances
in the past.

Anyone out there have any insight on this?

Karl