Copyright on Individual drum hits?

[spectrum]

I have been looking for a while and can find no copyright information on Benny Goodman's works.

It's actually not necessary to include the information on the packaging to have the legal protection.

I'd bet money that the label registered ALL their recordings in 1974 when the SR Copyright law was enacted. It's a retroactive thing.

The song in question was written by Louis Prima and arranged by Jimmy Mundy. And in any case, form SR did not even exist when this song was recorded. As this is the form that would be used to register an individual drum hit (the song itself, in a sheet music sense, is form PA), I say: GO FOR IT!!!

Not the best advice.

You have no idea who owns those recordings and what their opinion of sampling is. MANY a hip-hop artist has found out the hard way after the fact, when the labels/owners of the old recordings started suing people for sampling old records.

Single drum hits are not contested very often...BUT...I know of numerous cases of extremely short samples where the original owner sued and WON!

I can tell you for sure that what you are doing is technically illegal if you distribute any works containing these recordings.

At the minimum. it is a risky thing to do.

spectrum

[;-)]

I actually own the copyright for the silence between any drum hits. You must pay.

.

[spectrum]

That would be a cool copyright to own:

"Digital Black" - owned by me! ©2005

Of course, John Cage might contest that one!

[herodotus]

Also, don't even think of putting out a commercial sample library with these, that'd be just asking for legal action.

That I would agree with. If for no other reason than that some entertainment lawyer with a lot of time on his or her hands could literally destroy you financially just playing with different interpretations of the tortured contents of the DMCA and its 'applications' to such things.

I wonder what the closest thing to an original 'master tape' would be for this particular recording?

[egarrard]

I wonder what the closest thing to an original 'master tape' would be for this particular recording?

Probably the master lacquer. I bet it was recorded direct-to-disk. The Nazis were still developing what would become Ampex' technology about this time, so I doubt it was tape. If it is from a movie, the track might have been recorded on the film.

[sonarman]

To add to the confusion... the samples are taken from several different sources - a snare from one song, a hi hat from another. In a legal situation, wouldn't you need to know exactly which song the sample was taken from in order to sue?

[Equilibrium]

Change it. Use it. Enjoy it

[pernophus]

I wondered if musical copyright expired after a certain time. With literature its either 50 or 75 years...i think.

50 years

but it's a bit long to wait for that

[james0tucson]

Same for music.

But the copyright can be renewed.

The laws vary from country to country. In the USA, it is 70 years after the date of death of the author of the work. The only public domain that is certain, is that of artists who died before 1935.

Unpublished, anonymous works and works for hire (anything created for a corporation) expires 120 years from the initial publication. This makes anything created before 1885 fair game.

The rules are complicated for works that were create before 1977 but published later, but nothing will automatically revert to the public domain until 2047.

Anything published in the US before 1923 is public domain, period. Anything published before 1978 without a copyright notice is in the public domain also.

You *cannot* renew your copyright. Only Congress can extend the expiration date, as they have done several times.