What's going to happen is that dozens of independent producers are going to
tweak and remaster needledrops from pre-1972 vinyl and even shellac, with
signal processing/alteration and possibly time/pitch shifting. And the
producers will claim copyright protection under this precedent.
I mean, I'm no attorney, but doesn't this decision basically undo Capitol
vs Naxos? (A case I personally feel had no business being brought, as the
original HMV work would have been issued by Victor under license rather
than under copyright; the US was not part of any reciprocal copyright
conventions pertaining to sound recording at the time the record in
question was originally published, and Capitol itself was over a decade
away from formation...)
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