Re: [ARSCLIST] [was ARSCLIST] When you die...

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Karl Miller
To: Steven C. Barr(x)
> "Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > ***I'm trying to establish the details here, since one of my "future plans"
is to use my half-vast shellac archive to source, issue and (one hopes) SELL
sound recordings of the past which I own...?!
> > ***Here in Canada (so far, anyway), I can reissue independently about 99% of
my 78's (as I understand it, it is the US buyers of same, not myself, who are
violating "Bono's Law"...?!
> >
> It is my understanding that you could indeed transfer, press and sell in
Canada anything that is 50 years old. A US buyer could access your material in
different ways. You could have your stuff available for sale at a major vendor
like amazon (all but the US site) and the US customer could order online and
have it shipped. I am not sure who is violating the law, but indeed, I believe
it would be a violation of the law...but it happens every day.
> Karl
>
Indeed, there are a lot of CD firms that have (or claim to, anyway...?!)
head offices in Canada, Australia, and various European (usw.) countries
which still use 50-year terms for sound-recording copyright. This of
course those operations to be able to offer reissues of anything and
everything that was recorded on or before Dec. 31, 1956...and thus
covers a large number of interesting jazz, blues, c&w, usw. 78-era
recordings. In fact, I suspect I would have to hire a relatively
expensive copyright attorney to get legally-accurate answers to
my question(s)...?!

However, some of these firms promote their product via the Internet,
which means there may be many US purchasers of technically-illegal
recorded product (see under "Naxos" for one interpretation...?!).

However, I just recently picked up a blues compilation CD which
seems to have used its own approach...! MOST of the content is
p.d.-in-Canada (where the label, Madacy, seems to make its home),
but there are a fair number of live recordings (Bootlegs? Licit?
No way of knowing...?!). taken from unknown-to-me sources (note
that most of these firms aren't exactly generous with discographic
details concerning their product...?!).

What I'm trying to avoid (this may be obvious) is to sell one of
my CD-R-based discs to a hapless senior-citizen lady in West
Oskosh Heights...and then have the RIAA, accompanied by law-
enforcement officers of various sorts, drag both the hapless
purchaser and myself into a Wisconsin-located courtroom to
face a list of copright-violation offenses as long as a 1969
Buick Electra 225...?!

It is also interesting to note that in things literary, a book
will remain under copyright for the length of the applicable
copyright term applying in the country where it was originally
written...but apparently a sound recording's copyright status
depends on the term applicable in the country where same was
manufactured (otherwise the rest of the world would have to
wait until 1/1/2067 (subject to further extension...?!) to
hear the "greatest hits of the Peerless Quartette"...?!

Steven C. Barr

(Recopied to ARSCLIST, to see if anyone else can provide any
details of which I wot not ...?!)