Re: [ARSCLIST] ASCAP follows RIAA down the road guaranteed not to make friends

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frank Strauss" <fbsdmd@xxxxxxxxx>
> On 8/1/07, Steven Smith, King of the House, Inc. <kingofthehouse@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> > Again, 20 years ago, I worked with
> > a large theater chain. They were told they had to pay ASCAP fees for the
> > music before and after the show. The owner of the huge Washington chain,
> > instead, managed to locate a bunch of music that was in the public domain.
> > He put that in all theaters. It was not very current, but he got around
> > paying out money for intermission music.
> How much public domain music is there?
> 
Depends on where ya IS! In the US of A, there effectively isn't ANY (at
least as far as the sound recordings go...keep in mind that other laws
and terms cover other applicable musical royalties...!!). Here in Canada,
in the UK (thanks to a recent decision...!) and in most of elsewhere,
the copyright on a SOUND RECORDING lasts either 50 calendar years or
50 years from the end of the year in which the given sound recording
was "fixed" (a term which, for some reason, scares my cat...) :-)

In fact, that was the exact reason why the scores which were distributed
as the accompaniment for silent films generally consisted of classical
works...in the days of Bach and Beethoven, neither musical "copyrights"
nor performing-rights organizations existed, so one could use <composer>'s
second movement from rent arrears without paying for the privilege...!

Steven C. Barr