Question about copyrights

Subject: RE: Question about copyrights
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 10:32 AM

For USA Copyright Law, go to the Governmemt link: Copyright Laws

When (and if) it works again, type copyright law in the search blank. Lots of discussion here already, some of it good, some of it bad.

You will have a lot of checking to do on dates of composition and arrangement!

Subject: RE: Question about copyrights
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 09:52 AM

If you are in the USA, go to the Library of Congress site and start reading the FAQ. The USA has its own system that despite purporting to observe the two basic copyright international conventions (the Berne Copyright Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention) is quite unlike anything else (although some Pacific area countries have more recently been bullied into systems that resemble the US system).

If you are in the UK, start with the Department of Trade and Industry (Patent Office) and the PRS and the MCPS.

If you are in Europe try the Europa site and maybe (I have not been there in ages) the Max Planck institute.

Subject: Question about copyrights
From: Oslek
Date: 28 Jul 04 - 06:15 AM

I'm hoping some of you fellows have some experience with a quandary I'm facing. I have been singing and collecting folksongs since 1949. 14 years ago I lost my handwritten/typed files of songs in a move. But I still had hundreds in the skull memory bank.

My son challenged me six months ago to record my songs on CDs, and to type the lyrics into a computer, from memory! I now have a 200 page manuscript and several CDs in the can. Intend to send them out to friends and relatives.

If I wished to produce a book and CDs for commercial sale, what kind of hassles will I run into re: copyrights? Is there a site or an article some one could suggest for info, or personal experience from a forum reader? What constitutes a public domain song - I know in the sixties many copyrighted PD songs by just changing a few words from previously published collections. If a song is copyrighted (or author known), how do I get permission? Help. guys, I'm dumb on this.