Well, Deni, it gets complicated. In the U.S., copyrights lasted for 75 years after publication, and one year's worth of music was added to the public domeain each year - until we reacked 1923 a couple of years ago. Then there was a bill passed by the U.S. Congress (Sonny Bono was involved), and that bill extended copyrights up to a possible total of 120 years - but it's hard to tell what is what. If it was published before 1923, you're home free. For sheet susic for songs in the public doman, try the Lester Levy Sheet Music Collection (click). They have stuff in their index that isn't in public domain, but that won't display. Anything that WILL display is fair game.

120 years is longer than I would set it, but I think I'm coming to accept the need for a realatively long copyright period. The normal songwriter writes hundreds of duds, and a few very good songs. If I write a song that's really good, I'll perform it myself and sell rights to it for a few years. Then, I suppose I'll want to cash out on it and put the money into a nest egg, or a down payment on a house, or something. I'll want to sell it to a corporation - but the song is of little value to the corporation if the copyright has lamost run out. Who's going to buy a song if it can be available for free in three years? So, I guess I support a moderately long copyright period, but not 120 years. 30 years, maybe 40, after publication seems about right.

Through the years, people have claimed copyright on their arrangements of traditional songs. If it's traditional, I think it's up to us to bite the bullet and ignore the claim of copyright - but we do need to make sure the lyrics we sing for free are truly traditional.

-Joe Offer-