Oldies music collection -78s digitized

ichadwick said:

Have to pass along this link from another uke forum:
3,600 78s digitized to MP3 format.

Some great tunes there.

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ichadwick said:

Have to pass along this link from another uke forum:
3,600 78s digitized to MP3 format.

Some great tunes there.

Click to expand...

Futch said:

Wow! This is great stuff!

Just wondering, is this illegal, or have all the songs run out of copyright?

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United States Copyright Law
US copyright law is found in Title 17 of the United States Code and is administered by the US Copyright Office. "Terms for Copyright Protection", a U.S. Government publication, summarizes the current duration of copyright protection for published works as follows:

Works created after 1/1/1978 - life of the longest surviving author plus 70 years - earliest possible PD date is 1/1/2048
Works registered before 1/1/1978 - 95 years from the date copyright was secured.
Works registered before 1/1/1923 - Copyright protection for 75 years has expired and these works are in the public domain.
The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act was signed into law on October 27, 1998. Prior to the Sonny Bono 20 year copyright term extension, copyright protection for works registered before 1/1/1978 was 75 years; therefore, compositions registered in 1922 or earlier entered the public domain on 1/1/1998. The 1998 copyright extension did not extend copyright protection from 75 to 95 years for songs already in the public domain so . . .

The Good News - works published in the United States in 1922 or earlier are in the public domain even if they are not yet 95 years old.
The Bad News - no new works will enter the public domain until January 1, 2019.
You can confirm the above information about public domain and copyright protection in "Extension of Copyright Terms", Circular 15t, of the U.S. Copyright Office. Specifically the last paragraph of Page 3 states in part "Works published before January 1, 1923, have fallen into the public domain." We suggest that you print this circular and keep it as part of your public domain research materials.

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Copyright protection outside the USA is determined by the laws of the country where you wish to use a work. Copyright protection may be 95 years from publication date, 50 to 70 years after the death of the last surviving author, or other criteria depending on where the work was first published and how the work is to be used.

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The older 78 format continued to be mass produced alongside the newer formats into the 1950s, and in a few countries, such as India, into the 1960s. For example, Columbia records last reissue of Frank Sinatra songs on 78 rpm records was an album called "Young at Heart", issued November 1, 1954.[19] As late as the 1970s, some children's records were released at the 78 rpm speed.

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This is different, however, if your copyrighted music was work “made for hire.” If that is the case then you cannot have ownership of the music, as it never legally belonged to you, but the person or entity who hired you to produce the music. Works made for hire have different copyright music expiration than those owned by the creator. With works made for hire, the copyrights are in effect for 95 years from the original publication date or for 120 years from the creation of the work, whichever of the two is shorter.

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hotnanas said:

right mouse click -> save as

this is just taking me way too long!

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