Big News

The information on Music and Recording Copyrights is being converted to BLOG format. Not only can you pickup on hard-to-find guidance on public domain, you can inter-act with comments and suggestions! Please utilize this resource, as this is where future up-dates will be posted.

• Status of copyright : An in depth perspective concerning the 1960's era of recorded music, newly updated 11/98.
• Handy chart of public domain/copyright limits originally prepared at the Kathrine R Everett Law Library, University of North Carolina, and updated. Just when you thought everything was said and done with copyrights, Congress goes a passes a series of retroactive laws. If your copyright book was published this year, its already OUT-OF-DATE!
• Public domain music information useful to video program producers=
  1. Public domain recordings explained
  2. Public domain music compositions explained
  3. The R-VCR public domain music library of previously recorded material now available on CD.
  4. Archival and Effemeral copying explained.
  5. Public domain Christmas music programs on Public broadcast stations.
  6. Corporate authorship explained.
  7. Transmission and Performance rights explained
  8. Work-for-Hire. Trouble in Disneyland
• Event recording policy used at R-VCR for broadcast, cablevision or videotape distribution.
• A Short Course on the Music Recording Industry
• Publish or Perish. Works of the old masters finally put to rest.
• Fair Use, a practical guide for public media producers.
• Seldom Asked Copyright Questions. Internet style answers to questions you forgot to ask.
• Who are the composers of public domain music?? Here is an index with links to bio's and PM series recordings
• While this site is geared to the needs of video producers, Retail Stores also need public domain music.
• Analysis of recent laws affecting public domain
  1. 1996 Uruguay Round Agreement implementation
  2. 1997 Distribution of phonorecords/URAA infringements
  3. 1998 "Sonny Bono" term extentions
  4. 1999 "Sonny Bono" becomes effective January 27, 1999.
  5. 2001 Napster Meets the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals
  6. 2002 Copyright Arbitration Panel set Webcaster fees for using phonorecords.
  7. 2003 Capitol Records vs Naxos, no permission needed to restore pre-1972 phonorecords.
  8. 2006 CBS Radio pays fines for Payola.
  9. Legal citations, and I don't mean traffic tickets=
     1. Copyright Office Circular 22, all the intellectual rights lawyers I've talked to are unaware of this information, absolutely crucial to understanding the rights standing of historical recordings.
     2. California Civil Code Section 980, besides controlling us here in media land (aka southern California), this is the best State intellectual rights statute that I've seen, and probably the only enforceable one. With respect to recordings it is somewhat passe in that pre-emptive Federal statutes now speak to term limits of all non-published works. It is important to remember that what is sold in stores is not original fixations. Last time I looked, these were still in the record company vaults. 
     3. Copyright Office Circular 56, current info on obtaining copyright in sound recordings, contains also some historical considerations. Again original recordings and phonorecords are specifically distinguished.
     4. La Cienega Music Co Vs ZZ Top, in 1995 the 9th circuit court of appeals confirmed that a phonorecord constituted "publication" under the 1909 statutes for the music composition or arrangement contained in it, and thus a failure to secure a timely registration by the author placed same into public domain. Mostly applicable to pre-1978 works where registration was not optional and pre-1988 works that did not display copyright claim on published (phonorecord) copies. Effect now mitigated by Public Law 105-80.
     5. Agee vs Paramount Communications, 1995 the 2nd circuit court of appeals confirmed that (on-air) broadcast of music constitutes a "performance" under the law, and not a "distribution of product". While the music may be "syncronized" with the visual program by mechanism of videotape, the actionable use of the music by a broadcast station is still performance.

      Sources of public domain music and stereo recordings available at R-VCR

     1. MP3 Public Domain selections.
     2. PastMasters preselected stereo music from the 1960's available on VHS HiFi videotape or other formats.
     3. Catalog of music industry PreRecorded reel to reel audio tape.
     4. American Airlines AstroStereo.
     5. Sony - Keyboard Immortals Play Again and again .....
     6. Performance by the San Bernardino Valley Community College Band, Paul Kardos director
     7. Performance by the Ontario/Chaffey Community Showband, Jack Mercer director
     8. Pricing Guide for copying selected materials.
     9. Bring what you have. We can copy LPs or audiotapes of any music that you already have for archival purposes onto music CD or HiFi videotape.
     10. Here is a new service (not associated with us) that can offer less expensive baroque music CDs. They are found listed on pages accessed from http://www.baroque-music-club.com and are free of any copyright.
     

      

      

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     Your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated

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