Public domain music
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Public domain musicismusicto which noexclusiveintellectual propertyrights apply.[1]
Background[edit]
The length of copyright protection varies from country to country, but music, along with most other creative works, generally enters thepublic domain50 to 75 years after the death of the creator.[citation needed]Generally, copyright separately protects "musical compositions" (melodies, rhythms, lyrics, etc. as written in sheet music) and "sound recordings" (performances as recorded in audio files, CDs, and records).[2]Therefore, a recording ofRhapsody in Bluemade in 2020 could be protected by copyright even though the underlying composition lies in the public domain.
In the United States, although case law regardingcopyright abandonmentis inconsistent, the law has generally assumed that copyright owners may dedicate their works to the public domain; however, this practice remains exceedingly rare.[3]The most common way for a work to enter the public domain is for its copyright term to expire—this is the case for musical compositions published prior to 1 January 1929.[4]Sound recordings, on the other hand, were generally protected until at least 2022.[4]Before 1976, sound recordings were not protected by national copyright law in the United States; instead, the protection of these works was under the jurisdiction of the state and local governments. This resulted in great variation in laws across the country, with some jurisdictions extending perpetual protection to sound recordings. Although theCopyright Act of 1976provided federal copyright protection to sound recordings created after 1972, it otherwise left state protections in place until at least 2067.[5]The 2018Music Modernization Actfurther nationalized the system by extending federal copyright protection to pre-1972 sound recordings while also shortening their term of protection.[6]Sound recordings made before 1923 entered the public domain on 1 January 2022; recordings made between 1923 and 1946 will be protected for 100 years after publication; recordings made between 1947 and 1956 will be protected for 110 years; and all recordings made from 1957 to 15 February 1972 will have their protection terminate on 15 February 2067.[4]
In the European Union and Canada, sound recordings were copyrighted for 50 years until 2013. On 1 January 2013,the Beatles' single "Love Me Do"entered the public domain.[7]As of November 2013, European sound recordings are now protected for 70 years, which is not retroactive.[8]In 2015, Canada changed the copyright length to 70 years.[9]
On 8 February 2016, a court ruled that the children's song "Happy Birthday to You"was in the public domain andWarner/Chappell Musicwas required to pay $14 million to the song's licensees.[10]
In October 2020, American humoristTom Lehrerreleased his entire catalogue, dating back to the 1950s, into the public domain.[11]
Copyright[edit]
For music, the involved rights are:
- Authors (composers,lyricists) — e.g.CISACmembers,AR:SADAIC,DE:GEMA,GB: PRS, US:SESAC,BMI,ASCAP
- Performer
- Mechanical rights — e.g.BIEMmembers(mechanical rights collecting societies), AR:SADAIC,DE:GEMA,GB:MCPS,US:HFA
- BIEM is the international organisation representing mechanical rights societies. Mechanical rights societies exist in most countries. They license the reproduction of songs (including musical, literary and dramatic works). Their members are composers, authors and publishers and their clients are record companies and other users of recorded music. They also license mechanical aspects of the downloading of music via the Internet.
- Live performance — DE:GVL[de]
- Mechanical rights — e.g.BIEMmembers(mechanical rights collecting societies), AR:SADAIC,DE:GEMA,GB:MCPS,US:HFA
- Publisher — e.g.IFPImembers, AR:CAPIF,GB:BPI,US:RIAA
Process[edit]
There are several ways that a piece of music can be in thepublic domain:
- If all rights in it have failed,[1]as is the case for old pieces of music such asGeorge Gershwin's 1924 compositionRhapsody in Blue.[12]
- If the rights-holders have placed it into the public domain,[1]for example throughcopyright abandonment[13]or theCreative Commons Zero dedication.[14]
- If no rights ever applied to the music,[1]possibly because the music predates the existence of intellectual property, as is the case for mostfolk music,[citation needed]or because it is otherwise ineligible for protection, as is the case formusic performed by the various ensembles of the US military.[15]
If a piece of music does not fall within the public domain and is instead undercopyright protection,most countries' laws forbid the reproduction, public performance, distribution, and creation ofderivative workswithout the permission of the copyright holder.[16][17]Undercompulsory licensinglaws, some of these actions may in fact be lawful, but the infringing party would then be liable to pay royalties to the copyright holder for the use of their work.[18]
Sources[edit]
Inherently, all historical musical works (pre-1929) are public domain.[16]Classical[vague]sheet music, for example, is widely available for free use and reproduction. Some more current works are also available for free use through public works projects such asInternet Archive.This and similar projects aim to preserve and make readily available thousands of public domain music files, many of which have been recorded by projects dedicated to recording music for public use.
Music on the Creative Commons:
TheCreative Commonsis a nonprofit organization created for the purpose of housing the public domain. The Commons allows copyright owners to dedicate their works to the public domain either immediately or, with the "Founders' Copyright" (originally created in thefirst American copyright law in 1790), can obtain an exclusive license for 14 or 28 years (if renewed) of copyright protection in exchange for selling their work to the Commons for one dollar after that protection has expired. Copyright owners can fill out an online application athttps://creativecommons.org/in order to apply.[19]
Public domain musical works and recordings can be uploaded onto theWikimedia Commonswebsite.
See also[edit]
- Public domain film
- List of public domain tangos
- Copyright Term Extension Act
- LibriVox,an online digital library of free public domain audiobooks.
- Copyright collective
- Performance rights organisation
- Royalty free music
References[edit]
- ^abcd"Welcome to the Public Domain".Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center.3 April 2013.Retrieved2 January2021.
- ^"Copyright Registration of Musical Compositions and Sound Recordings"(PDF).US Copyright Office.Retrieved2 January2020.
- ^Perzanowski, Aaron; Fagundes, Dave (2020). "Abandoning Copyright".SSRN Electronic Journal.doi:10.2139/ssrn.3543654.S2CID240758886.
- ^abc"Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States | Copyright Information Center".copyright.cornell.edu.Retrieved2 January2021.
- ^"Public Domain Sound Recordings | PD Info".Archived fromthe originalon 28 January 2016.Retrieved2 March2013.
- ^Stoltz, Mitch (19 September 2018)."The New Music Modernization Act Has a Major Fix: Older Recordings Will Belong to the Public, Orphan Recordings Will Be Heard Again | Electronic Frontier Foundation".Eff.org.Retrieved22 June2019.
- ^Rolling Stone (13 January 2013)."The Beatles' 'Love Me Do' Hits the Public Domain in Europe – Rolling Stone".Rollingstone.com.Retrieved22 June2019.
- ^"A Look At Europe's New Music Copyright Law".Law360.Retrieved22 June2019.
- ^""Canada Officially [sic] Extends Copyright Term to 70 Years "".Billboard.
- ^"Warner Music Pays $14 Million to End 'Happy Birthday' Copyright Lawsuit".Hollywood Reporter. 9 February 2016.Retrieved22 June2019.
- ^"Satirist Tom Lehrer has put his songs into the public domain".21 October 2020.
- ^"1924 Copyrighted Works To Become Part Of The Public Domain".NPR.org.Retrieved2 January2021.
- ^Fagundes, Dave; Perzanowski, Aaron (2020)."Abandoning Copyright".Case Western Reserve University School of Law - Scholarly Commons.Retrieved2 January2020.
- ^Kreutzer, Till."Validity of the Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication and its usability for bibliographic metadata from the perspective of German Copyright Law"(PDF).Retrieved2 January2021.
- ^"U.S. Government Works | USAGov".www.usa.gov.Retrieved2 January2021.
- ^ab"Copyright and Public Domain".Public Domain Information Project.Haven Sound, Inc. 2016.Retrieved2 October2016.
- ^"Copyright Basics".www.lib.purdue.edu.Retrieved2 January2021.
- ^Abrams, Howard B. (2009). "Copyright's First Compulsory License".Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal.26(2): 217.
- ^"CC0 - Creative Commons".Retrieved6 October2016.
