[Advocacy Advisors] Music industry behind US copyright reform

[Bob Kosovsky]

Just a FYI message...

This appeared on USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2015/02/08/creators-alliance-grammys-copyright-law-ryan-tedder/23081421/

Initially I thought we might fear another extension of copyright law, but
no, it seems more geared toward how parties within the industry do business
(licensing agencies, e.g. ASCAP, BMI should watch out, as transparency is
being requested).

This more official release from the Copyright Office indicates the big
advantage for Wikimedia projects:  The desire to bring pre-1972 recordings
under federal protection.  This means that copyright would mirror that for
print materials.  Thus, if th legislation passed, public domain for
recordings would begin prior to 1923, instead of the situation now where
virtually all pre-1972 recordings are protected until 2067:

http://copyright.gov/docs/musiclicensingstudy/

(Of course, by the time it would pass, 1923 might be in the public domain
already. :) )

-- 
Bob Kosovsky, Ph.D. -- Curator, Rare Books and Manuscripts,
Music Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
blog:  http://www.nypl.org/blog/author/44   Twitter: @kos2
 Listowner: OPERA-L ; SMT-TALK ; SMT-ANNOUNCE ; SoundForge-users
- My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions -
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