Music copyrights only last a certain amount of time. Several years after the writer has died, royalties won’t benefit them anymore and the song becomes free game for anyone to release their own version. Not that the law of copyright can stop a thirteen year old musician from covering a Red Hot Chili Peppers tune at home, but that his version of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song can be publicly broadcasted to the world, free of charge in a century or two.
For example, any U.S. based sheet music distributor can freely sell Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This is not only because Beethoven has been gone for some time and royalties payments would no longer benefit the man, but also because in the 1800’s, there were no copyright laws in the United States to protect Beethoven’s works. Although the U.S. copyright act of 1976 states that copyrights are granted “at the time of creation,” Beethoven was simply born too early; plus if the United States government did not have these rules, what would encourage writers to create of new works? A good music publisher must be familiar with the concept, the history and the laws surrounding public domain and know how to profit from expired copyrights.
In Music Copyright Basics, Joel Leach explains that: ”All copyrighted materials pass into public domain when their copyrights expire.”[1] So when do copyrights expire? In 2009, the current rule is that copyrights usually last until 75 years after the author’s death, depending on the authorship and intent of the song. If the song is a “work for hire” meaning that it was created for a flat fee by some composer to a corporation, than the term is either 95 years after the author’s death, or 120 years after the date of the works creation (whichever is shorter.)
Mr. Leaches book also explains that “If a work is co-authored or co-composed (more than a single composer or any composer/lyricist combination) the copyrights expiration is linked to the last surviving contributor.”[2]
This was not always the law. The U.S. copyright law as we know today did not introduce these types of rules until 1976. Between 1909 and 1976 the quickly changing United States slowly adapted to its developing industrialization that caused many works to fall into public domain prematurely by today’s standards. In Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings Music and More by Stephen Fishman explains the reasons why a work might be in the public domain:
· the work was published before there was a copyright law
·the works copyright protection expired
·copyright protection was lost or never acquired for some reason
·the copyright owner dedicated the work to public domain
·the work was never entitled to copyright protection[3]
So how do we know if a work is within the public domain? This can be very tricky and a publisher or musician should always make sure of this before releasing any content they think might be protected by copyright.
Here are some basic guidelines to determine whether a work part of Public Domain: Anything written before 1924 – Public Domain. Any work written later lasted for 28 years form the date of publication. Some publishers had the rights renewed with the Copyright Office for another 28 years, but if a song was not published it did not receive protection. This lasted until 1963 when the 28 year extension was raised to 67 years from being published. Finally after 1976, the laws were changed to last until 70 years after the death of the author –published or not.
This can become very complicated for a licensor to determine and causes a backlog of old music to be paid royalties. This best thing for a licensor to do is first of all check when the author died, when the work was published (if they had a publisher) and check with ASCAP or BMI to see if anyone is currently claiming the song.
Many publishers take credit for their writer’s arrangements of public domain titles. A smart publisher would list the songs that their arrangers should be receiving credit for, especially since public domain arrangements normally take up to three times as long to receive royalties. This can be due to a few big reasons: (1) the publisher is nowhere to be found; (2) the publisher claims a public domain arrangement of a song but the American PRO’s do not recognize the arrangement worthy enough to receive royalties; and (3) public domain titles are last on the list of priorities for big licensing firms; they spend most of their time trying to pay off the publishers whom they owe the most money.
Based on the intent of the work, some works enter public domain the moment they are created. Many people write songs that they want everyone use, or write for a cause that would be achieved through providing music to everyone free of charge. Public Domain is important to the United States not only to show that copyrights are limited privileges, but allowing anyone to use old songs free of charge does keep the spirit of classic works alive opening the door for inspiration of new works.
Did you know you can shorten your urls with AdFocus and make dollars from every visitor to your shortened links.
ReplyDelete