The Library of Historical Audio Recordings at i78's

[Inigo]

That's the way, right! I've registered already! I find it marvelous!
Nevertheless, I have some questions...
Some of the recordings I visited yesterday, instead of the usual label photo and data, and full playing features, have a default label that says Salvaged Recording, and in those the variable playing speed and the eq/raw sound switch aren't available. Those I suppose have not been transferred by your team, am I right? Also the quality of those transfers is good, but not at the same high standard than yours...
Another question about playing speeds. The 0c speed (I suppose this means the right one) for Brunswicks, for instance, is consistently 80rpm. For some electrical Victors I played is stated as 78.3rpm. But I've learned from here and there that the right speed for Victors is usually 76.6rpm.
And Brunswicks, I don't know... But 6000 series electricals are all recorded at a nominal speed of 80?
I know that recordings varied the true speeds despite what was advertised by the companies... In fact, I've learned through experience not to trust the nominal speed except as a starting point... and find the right speed by ear, voices and instruments sounding natural, etc. And many times, records I've 'discarded' as ugly things, change dramatically when you discover their true speeds!

[Marc Hildebrant]

With regard to up-loads of music from Charles Batchelor,

I can understand. The postings of the music on my podcasts take a lot of work, and I enjoy sharing them as often as people want to visit the podcast location to hear them.

Marc

[52089]

Your assessment of i78s' quality is noted with satisfaction. We work hard to provide the best old record experience on the net. However, stealing i78s' content disrespects our work and violates copyright laws.

Thank you.

While I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, I am sort of the "copyright geek" on this board, so I have to chime in here.

I agree that from a respect POV, people shouldn't be trying to download what you've been kind enough to post. However, from a legal POV, there are issues.

First, literally none of the sound recordings you have uploaded are currently public domain in the USA, they are protected by state and local anti-piracy laws - for a few more weeks anyway. On 1/1/2022, Title II of the Music Modernization Act makes all sound recordings published before 1923 available for public use without paying royalties, which is a de facto way of saying they are public domain. 1923 and later recordings will enter the public domain every few years according to a published schedule. While I suppose it's possible that you have a license to make these 41K+ recordings available in this manner, it seems quite unlikely. Since you (probably) don't own or license the recordings, technically you wouldn't have the right to prevent their re-use. That would be up to the actual owners of this material.
https://www.copyright.gov/music-moderni ... ecordings/

Second, though it has (obviously) not yet been specifically tested for sound recordings, a legal case called Bridgemen v. Corel established that photographs of public domain items are also public domain, regardless of the skill needed to photograph and process them. In a broader sense, that means that restoration does not result in a copyright because restoration is the antithesis of originality, and copyright requires originality. With vintage sound recordings falling largely under the federal copyright system as of this coming January 1, it is reasonable to assume that Bridgeman's ruling would be applied to them as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman ... Corel_Corp.

So, from a copyright standpoint, you probably don't have much of a leg to stand on to prevent reuse. However, there is one thing you can do if you haven't already, and that is to explicitly state in your terms of service that users are not permitted to download or otherwise reuse what you have uploaded. There is an established case for this involving a service that indexes and cross-references legal rulings, which are in the public domain. The courts ruled that even though the documents are public domain, users were still bound by the company's terms for using their system and therefore couldn't just bulk download everything from their site. I don't have the case reference handy, but if I find it, I'll post it.

Again, this is just an amateur's opinion based on multiple sources and should not be taken as legal advice.

And for the record, I am a registered user of your site and greatly enjoy and appreciate what you have done.

[Inigo]

I suppose that while nobody makes commercial use of them, there is no problem.
Rather different is if sb takes one of these transfers, and uses it in a website which has commercial interests, or procures earnings by way of advertising, etc. as many yt channels do...

[gunnarthefeisty]

For the ease that it takes to make an account, this is worth it. There are some fantastic transfers on here, and the sound processing they do is nothing short of marvelous- their 5" transfers sound incredibly clear. I may upload a few of these transfers to Youtube for ease of use.

Your assessment of i78s' quality is noted with satisfaction. We work hard to provide the best old record experience on the net. However, stealing i78s' content disrespects our work and violates copyright laws.

We encourage sharing i78s' content through the SHARE button. Here's an example: https://i78s.org/preview/c106f16f293511 ... 5cd5c49d3b

SHARE links as often as you'd like to let others know of the great stuff i78s offers. This is the best way to show your appreciation and respect for this service given to you at no cost.

Thank you.

OK, I won't do it out of respect. However, I can't think of a single copyright law that I'd be breaking that you aren't already.

[Marc Hildebrant]

I believe that the referenced federal law, is also known as the "Mickey Mouse law" as it helped to extend the copyright on various companies' products. I believe that it was introduced into congress by the late Sonny Bono of "Sonny & Cher".

Marc

[Charles Batchelor]

While I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, I am sort of the "copyright geek" on this board, so I have to chime in here.

Thank you for your review of US copyright law. It's a mess out there, isn't it. As you note, the Music Modernization Act will clear things up a little by bringing sound recordings under federal law for the first time. As such sound recordings will become subject to the protections and exclusions of Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Act of 1976. What this means in simple (but not simplistic) terms is outlined in this six-minute video. https://vimeo.com/612875024 It's a concise overview of the "public service" and "fair use" provisions that allow libraries to share protected intellectual property, such as post-1922 sound recordings, with their patrons.

As the video shows, three-quarters of the records on i78s will enter public domain in a few days. One would expect, or at least hope, that guests of the library would have the common decency to respect the library's work and not rip it off. One-in-four records will remain under copyright protection. Their owners will still have every right to go after anyone who steals and disseminates their property. It's really not very complicated.

i78s was built by a collector for collectors. We think everyone on the board will find it of value, and invite you to take advantage of what it has to offer.

[52089]

I believe that the referenced federal law, is also known as the "Mickey Mouse law" as it helped to extend the copyright on various companies' products. I believe that it was introduced into congress by the late Sonny Bono of "Sonny & Cher".

Marc

Actually no, you're mixing 2 different things. The Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act (sometimes called the "Mickey Mouse Protection act") did indeed extend the term of most copyrights, but it had nothing at all to do with sound recordings. The Music Modernization Act will (among other things) bring pre-1972 sound recordings under the federal copyright system for the first time, as described in my previous post. It takes effect this coming January 1.

[Charles Batchelor]

That's the way, right! I've registered already! I find it marvelous!
Nevertheless, I have some questions...

Thanks for the kind words about i78s. You raise two great questions. We intend to answer these and others on the site's FAQ. But as you may have noticed, we haven't gotten around to that yet.... So allow me to draft these portions of the FAQ here.

Some of the recordings I visited yesterday, instead of the usual label photo and data, and full playing features, have a default label that says Salvaged Recording, and in those the variable playing speed and the eq/raw sound switch aren't available. Those I suppose have not been transferred by your team, am I right? Also the quality of those transfers is good, but not at the same high standard than yours...

You're on the right track regarding SALVAGED RECORDINGS. These are mostly quick-and-dirty transfers made to DAT as long as 30 years ago. They were kept as reference transfers for discs and cylinders as they were leaving the collection. As you note, few are up to i78s' current technical standards of preservation. However, most are decent-enough quality to serve as references -- place holders -- until a better copy can be found. We do not know the speeds at which they were transferred and we did not photograph their labels, so these data are missing for these sides.

If you'd rather not subject your ears to salvaged recordings, simply uncheck the "Include records no longer held in the collection" box from the Settings and Preferences tab.

Another question about playing speeds. [snip] I've learned through experience not to trust the nominal speed except as a starting point... and find the right speed by ear, voices and instruments sounding natural, etc. And many times, records I've 'discarded' as ugly things, change dramatically when you discover their true speeds!

Truer words have seldom been written about RECORDING & PLAYBACK SPEEDS. The 78.26 rpm "standard" was established long after the acoustical era ended. Even the nominal speeds of 76 and 78 and 80 and 90 for discs, and 120 and 144 and 160 for cylinders -- speeds insisted on by the record companies on record boxes, sleeves and advertising -- were just starting points as you say. Our transfer engineers tune the opening section of each selection (using A=440) to a key that sounds or is known to be appropriate. Why the opening? Because lathe speed often changed across two or three minutes of recording. We're even doing this for the Edison Gold Moulded and Columbia XP cylinders that have been going online over the last few months (a few hundred a week). The earliest Edison Gold Mouldeds were recorded slower than 160. Most of the earliest Columbia XPs were recorded faster -- as fast as 190 RPM in fact. Check them out and hear for yourself. It's pretty astonishing that collectors and archivists haven't caught onto this yet.

One more thing about playback speed. You'll notice that for some discs and cylinders we report the "Average RPM". These have been corrected with Capstan, a professional software application that removes the wow, flutter, and lathe drift burned into so many pioneer recordings. Every American Berliner; Every 5" Concert (Grand) cylinder; Every Columbia 20th Century cylinder -- Every one has been corrected this way. We report the Average RPM" because the speed of these recordings changes microsecond to microsecond. Any constant speed of playback is literally wrong at virtually every point! You can hear this in the raw transfers. For instance, flick the switch to "Preservation Transfer" while listening to Bert Williams' 20th Century recording of "Let it Alone". https://i78s.org/preview/ed8220e7fce7ca ... 44ed138b38 There's a whole semitone of difference between the front and back of the recording.

Making these corrections takes a lot of time and skill. They're the reason why 1,500 Berliner sides have yet to be uploaded! But we believe it's worth the work and the wait. At i78s we respect the recordings and do our best to present them in their best light.

[Marc Hildebrant]

52089,

Thank you for that correction.

Marc