Comments on: Vintage sound recordings

By: doug

doug — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:49:13 +0000

this is more about whether a rights holder should have to actively assert the right or rather the listener should have to play hide and seek to find them. Finally, the Jazz recordings should have beed digitized and dumped all over the internet for all to enjoy.

By: GregS

GregS — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:59:48 +0000

James, somehow I doubt that the typical teenager’s computer is fill of pirated copies of hot jazz recordings from the 1920s, old Jack Benny radio shows, and the like. The real problem with piracy is with current, popular music and videos, not with the sort of orphaned works that this thread is discussing.

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:47:43 +0000

James, I would suggest that you actually read the post before you comment on it. This topic has absolutely nothing to do with piracy.

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:46:01 +0000

Be aware that this is one of the expected outcomes of the decision in the Google case. If you say that copyright is so important that you can’t do anything unless and until the rightsholder gives permission, then you are ensuring that orphan works will die.

By: James

James — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:28:03 +0000

Anybody who seriously thinks that the copyright balance between rightsholders and pirates is too tipped towards rightsholders these days clearly hasn’t looked at a typical teenager’s computer lately. yes, copyright as is has some absurdities, but there is a larger problem of widespread piracy both in the USA and beyond.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:03:21 +0000

The Historical Recording Coalition for Access and Preservation (HRCAP) has some interesting notes about the preservation of historic recordings. Among other things, it may be hard to obtain funding for preservation that does not include public access to the results of the preservation efforts. Also, it is not always feasible for record companies to independently reissue historical recordings. (Among other things, there are historical recordings that would have to be obtained on the open market because the master recordings no longer exist.) One issue that may make copyright difficult to deal with at times may be that of its complexity. In the writing "The Exclusive Right to Read," law professor Jessica Litman has mentioned the situation where even multiple copyright experts have encountered difficulty when trying to figure out specifics of copyright. (In addition, efforts to educate the public about copyright have been less than successful; performance rights societies have attempted such educational efforts over many decades, according to Litman.)

By: ps

ps — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:09:01 +0000

14 years. No more. No less. Any lawmaker who thinks otherwise should be forced (as should their descendants) to listen to Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ until the sun goes out.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 12:10:23 +0000

Old time radio recordings of “The Great Gildersleave”, “The Jack Benny Show”, and etc are routinely bought and sold on the internet. Who knows who owns the copyright.

By: Bill Poser

Bill Poser — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 06:33:52 +0000

And the legal premise underlying this problem is the completely insane belief that creators already dead will be stimulated by the extension of copyright.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 01:50:16 +0000

Unless it’s older than ‘Steamboat Willie’, it’ll never go public domain in the U.S.