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

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 03/08/07, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:

> ----- 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...) :-)

However, the question was about music rather than recordings.
> 
> 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...!

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx