Jon Noring wrote:
Although this is not associated with text in any manner, I strongly
recommend that the rights and metal parts for all the pre-1942 sound recordings now held by Sony BMG (which includes just about everything recorded in the U.S. before 1942, including the Columbia/ARC and RCA Victor catalogs) be purchased and "freed". I don't know the exact number of recordings, but this collection definitely comprises over a million "sides."
Although I'm not certain Sony BMG would entertain an offer, there is some reason to believe they might, especially if linked in with some potential tax write-offs and the positive publicity that this would give Sony BMG.
That seems naïve. Although the profit that the recording companies may garner from any one recording are likely to be small. Their investment in the collection as a whole would be substantial, and I do not see them going into that fit of altruism that would inspire them to give up capital rights in the material. Keeping the works in vaults until the United States has passed a database protection law would be more in keeping with their profit motives.
For much of the stuff that they hold, copyrights may very well have expired, but if they have the unique copy of one of these works, they still have the right of possession, and will milk it for what it's worth to them.
Suppose too that they opened it all up in a feverish moment of generosity. Big as we are, we still do not have the manpower to process much of it
For background information on the unusual copyright status of early U.S. sound recordings (which is surprising!), and whether or not Sony BMG might even be interested, refer to the article I wrote about the topic of freeing the older sound recordings:
http://www.projectgramophone.org/TeleRead-Article-01Nov2003.html
(Especially refer to the section entitled: "A Note To The Major Media Companies: Why Not Donate Your Older Sound Recording Catalogues?")
I read your article, but I think you exagerate the legal points. Copyright is a federal matter, and I don't see any state copyright laws withstanding a constitutional challenge. The burden of proving perpetual royalty rights on a very old recording falls on whoever is alleging that such a contract exists. If nobody can find the old contract the effect would be the same as if it had never existed. They are not indeterminable.
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