No copyright for old music?

I've heard before that music after 25 years old was free to use, and I seem to remember Cliff Richard trying to get this changed a few years back. I'm not sure it's really quite that simple, but it's probably no coincidence that local radio play mostly "oldies" as they don't have the budget to play much else. That's the main reason that local radio is so awful.

The time varies from country to country, but here in the UK, copyright on an audio recording lasts 50 years from original release. So, for example, Wilhelm Furtwangler's classic recording of Tristan und Isolde from 1952, released in 1953, can now be had cheaply on Naxos (among many other similar examples).

However, most of the Naxos historical releases aren't up for sale in the US because the period of copyright on recordings is longer there (I can't recall the exact figure).

The release date matters. For example, the recently released 1955 Bayreuth Ring cycle under Keilberth will continue to enjoy copyright for many years to come as it spent most of its life languishing unreleased in Decca's vaults.

Where things get a little complicated, is that record labels would argue that when they remaster a recording, the new work done to that end justifies a new copyright. In other words, my EMI CD issue of that Tristan und Isolde ©2001. Now, law here is worded such a way that many would argue the law doesn't grant this new copyright, and I don't believe it's been tested in the courts (I don't think the record companies would want to, given the risk of losing). So, while a record company would argue that while it would be legal for me to make someone a copy or an original LP issue of the Furtwangler Tristan, they would argue I was breaching copyright if I did so with my CD copy. But, as I say, this is something of a bold assertion.

Of course, in the example I've given, the music is out of copyright too. However, in something more recent this may not be the case since that extends 50 years after the composer's death.

Clear as mud?

regards, Tam

I have to work with music, and its reproduction in word and in its recording (and occasionally video) on a regular basis.

Broadly speaking the general rule we have to work with is that the copyright extends for 70 after the composer's death. When this includes a particular performance by a particular performer, I imagine the same will apply to the performer's copyright on the performance.

Or someone may hold and renew the copyright, indicated by the copyright mark "(c)date".

But it certainly isn't 50 years from the date something was composed.

James

I don't think anyone said it was 50 years after something was composed.

I thought it was 70 years (or so) after the artist's death to (for copyright of the score, as distinct from the recording), but when I know that area less well, and when I glanced at the 1988 copyright, designs and patents act it seemed to say it was 50 (but that may have been superseded by something else).

regards, Tam

And a quick bit of googling shows it was extended from 50 to 70 years authorship or composition, etc., in 1995 as part of harmonisation of such things across the EU (though recordings were left at 50 years).

regards, Tam

So none of us really know then

Does this help?

Very similar site in the US, BigH, and the laws are not that different.
Public Domain Info
And from that site (hoping I don't infringe any copyright...):

quote:

United States Copyright Law
US copyright law is found in Title 17 of the United States Code and is administered by the US Copyright Office. " Terms for Copyright Protection", a U.S. Government publication, summarizes the current duration of copyright protection for published works as follows:

Works created after 1/1/1978 - life of the longest surviving author plus 70 years - earliest possible PD date is 1/1/2048

Works registered before 1/1/1978 - 95 years from the date copyright was secured.

Works registered before 1/1/1923 - Copyright protection for 75 years has expired and these works are in the public domain. "

"Rule of Thumb for Public Domain Music
Works published in the United States with a copyright date of 1922 or earlier are in the public domain in the United States.
Copyright protection outside the USA is determined by the laws of the country where you wish to use a work. Copyright protection may be 95 years from publication date, 50 to 70 years after the death of the last surviving author, or other criteria depending on where the work was first published and how the work is to be used.

There are two issues here. The estates of dead composers used to hold the copyright in the work of that composer in UK for 50 years. This was going to be changed to harmonise with other territories where I think it is 75 years. This means that to perform the music in public you have to contact the Performing Rights Society, and the hire of the music usually covers the fees involved.

For recordings, I think the period of copyright is still 50 years, which means a company like Regis can transfer a record made [in UK] before 1957 to CD and issue it legally in UK. Remasterings carry a new copyright date from their new publication, but as has been suggested this might not stand scrutiny as the basis for a legal challenge of the issue of a old and otherwise out of copyright recording. Sometimes an old recording is first issued many years after the actual recording, and in that case the copyright certainly runs from the date of first issuing, and not the recording date.

The system seems Baroque in th extreme. Even quotaion of another's music [still in copyright] can lead to court action, as I believe was the case in the music for the film "Jaws." The Stravinski estate persued that one, but I don't know what the result was...

It used to worry me when I was the librarian for an amateur orchestra which performed only modern music. You cannot imagine the correspondence that I had with the PRS over this or that piece! The best of it was that the orchestra ran at a small loss which entirely equated to the performing fees, and would not have survived at all if the committe had not subsidised it and we had been given the rehearsal and perfoming halls by Malvern College. One would almost think that the estates of these composers would have been glad to see their music being aired in public, but not a bit of it! When we had used up the resources we were prepared to sink into it we wound the band up!

ATB from Fredrik

I hope you burned a copy of his copy, before you took it back