Press outside the US (Canada?, the place where many later LP covers were
printed.) Ship 'em back.

Another fine example of forcing manufacturing jobs outside this country.

Steven Smolian

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Copyright Alert


> On Wed, 24 Nov 2004, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>> > I want to issue some
>> > pre 1954 programs from the French Broadcasting Corporation. Some of you
>> > probably remember the series "Masterworks from France." These
>> > performances
>> > are public domain in France, yet, my reading of the law suggests that
>> since
>> > they were not public domain in the US in 1996? they are subject to the
>> > US
>> > copyrights and I cannot issue them in the US.
>>
>> I am not following you here Karl.
>>
>> If the performances originated in France and the original copyright
>> belonged
>> to a French entity and has now expired, it would seem that there would be
>> no
>> copyright holders in the US. that could come after you. Even if copyright
>> existed here at one time, only a copyright holder could make trouble. Who
>> would that be?
>
> Well, I doubt there would be trouble with the French, but to press in the
> US one has to demonstrate clear ownership...or IRMA will get you!
>
> It is my understanding that, according to our local copyright
> authority...and really one of the most informed I have ever met, Georgia
> Harper...(from her paper at the Sound Savings Symposium, published by ARL)
> "Today, a foreign sound recording not in the public domain in the country
> of its origin on January 1, 1996, when the Uruguay Round Agreements Act
> (URAA) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) went into
> effect, and
>
> first published before 1972
>
> in an eligible foreign country (one of the signatories to the Berne
> Convention or WIPO Copyright Treaty, a member of the WTO, or an adherent
> to the WIPO Perfromances and Phonograms Treaty)
>
> with at least one author or rights holder being a national of or domiciled
> in an eligible country
>
> and not published here within 30 days of the foreign publication,
>
> is protected in the U.S. for the full term of protection it would have had
> if published here as a book or image or other work comprising protectable
> subject matter under federal law-95 years from the date of publication.
> The URAA "restored" the foreign work's copyright in the United States."
> ...
>
> The URAA was challenged as unconsitutional in Golan v. Ashcroft, the was
> stayed pending in another case that dealt with an overlapping issue
> (Wldred v. Ashcroft, 123 Ct.769 (2003)). Eldred was decided January 15,
> 2003, however, there has been no activity on Golan since that date."
>
> Perhaps someone will tell me to the contrary, but from my reading of the
> above, it looks like those broadcasts are covered in the U.S. even if they
> are PD in France. The place where I get my CDs pressed has cited this text
> and seems to be unwilling to press any discs with that material, even if I
> pay the mechanical rights.
>
> Hopefully someone will be able to cite some other source which will make
> it possible for me to release some of that stuff. Of course, I wonder,
> other than the music publisher, who cares if I sell a broadcast of a
> Damase Symphony broadcast in 1948?
>
> Karl
>