Thanks for the link to pdinfo.com. I didn't know about that, and it will be useful.

Unfortunately, though, and typically with copyright issues, the very first thing I read there raised as many questions as it answered. They state flatly, "The proof that a musical work is in the Public Domain in the USA is any sheet music publication with a copyright date of 1922 or earlier." OK, then what about a musical score issued in 1903 in a book by a publisher based in, according to the title page, "London, New York, and Sydney," with an all-rights-reserved copyright notice that doesn't mention which country, and for which a examination of the on line US Library of Congress copyright catalog indicates that the copyright was renewed in 1937? Is this score in the public domain in the US? This example is based on a real case I know, and is not at all an atypical situation.

Public domain rules regarding recorded music are even more complicated and obscure. For instance, foreign (i. e. non-US) recordings made after 1972 receive the same copyright protection as recordings made in the United States, but no foreign recordings made during 1923-1972 are in the public domain in the United States, even if they're in the public domain in their countries of origin (see "The Public Domain" by Stephen Fishman [Nolo Press 2010], chapter on Music Rights, esp. p. 121 ).

My main complaint about copyright is not that things should or should not be free to use, but that it's most often impossible to determine whether you are free to use them, even in cases that might seem on the surface straightforward. Rights for creative work in written or recorded form seem to be determined by a very complicated and uncoordinated set of US Federal and state legislation, case law, and
international treaty law. It's hard to argue that everyone should obey laws which no one can understand.

Jon Corelis
Pagan songs