Q,

I wonder how many songs the Carter family copyrighted that they didn't write. Take Lulu Walls for example.

My publisher, Mel Bay wouldn't allow me to use Lulu walls in my book because AP Carter had a copyright on it.

I had to prove to them it first appeared in a different publication from the 1890's.

They also had a copyright on Wildwood flower.

If you find a song and record it and copyright it; if you are the first to do it- then you hold the copyright.

My publisher let me publish a song by someone else written in the 1950's. He never got a copyright! Hard to believe.

Richie