[WikiEN-l] Classical tape recordings from the 1950s and 1960s

[Magnus Manske]

On 11/3/06, The Uninvited Co., Inc <uninvited at nerstrand.net> wrote:
> I have in my hand a tape recording published by the Deutche Grammphon
> Gesellschaft that was published in the USA during this era.  All of the
> original packaging is intact and no copyright notice is present.  It
> contains a collection of important sacred arias and choruses performed
> by leading performers of the day, and the musical and audio quality is
> beyond criticism.  I bought it for a few bucks on eBay.  There are many
> other such recordings available on eBay and elsewhere, and they could
> readily be converted to Ogg Vorbis and uploaded.  Their value both to
> the public at large and to the articles they could illustrate is
> tremendous.

While I don't know about the copyright situation, I am sure of one
thing: Eventually, your new tape player will break down, and the tapes
will go bad. Not soon, but think 20 years of use. If you were to make
copies to Ogg Vorbis (or maybe even FLAC, the Free Lossless Audio
Codec) and store them on CDs/DVDs, and maybe give a few trustworthy
people copies of these, digital copies will be available once the
copyright smokescreen clears.

Magnus