Re: [ARSCLIST] 78s, SoundExchange, & SaveNetRadio

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Richter" <mrichter@xxxxxxx>
> Sam Brylawski wrote:
> > Internet radio may be crucial to promotion of historical recordings, but if
> > an internet radio station plays only 78s and early LPs in their original
> > form, i.e. not from CDs, the recent webcasting fees do not apply. Pre-1972
> > sound recordings have no federal copyright protection and digital
> > dissemination fees cannot be collected for streaming them.
> 
> What is the basis for your blanket declaration on copyright? Is there 
> reason to believe that Capitol USA vs. Naxos does *not* apply? Under 
> that decision, federal copyright does apply and in fact is restored to 
> works which are in the public domain in other countries.
> 
> Without a citation, you are offering a legal opinion which is at best 
> questionable.
> 
The point here is that pre-1972 sound recordings are NOT, technically,
protected by copyright...since an oversight made sound recordings
ineligible for copyright protection until that oversight was (more or
less) corrected by the late Mr. Bono...! Recordings falling between
"the year dot" and 1972 are protected by various state laws covering
the duplication of sound recordings without official permission (in
all states with the possible exception of Vermont...?!), most of which
lack an applicable term of protection.

However, current US-ian Federal Copyright law will place all such sound
recordings under Federal copyright...which occurs...and ENDS...on the
stroke of midnight a.m. on January 1, 2067 (if life still exists on Earth
at that point...come to think of it, the term will change even if Earth
is occupied only by radioactive mutant cockroaches and their progeny, which/
whom are unlikely to have acquired literacy as well as the capability of
intelligent thought (which, come to think of it, means there WON'T be a
noticeable change...?!)...

Steven C. Barr