The Public Domain Review is looking for contributors

[ceintsdebakelite]

Hello,

I don’t know if some of you already came across The Public Domain Review website (http://publicdomainreview.org)...

It’s an online journal dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the best of public domain material found on the web. There’s an audio section on the site (http://publicdomainreview.org/audio/), featuring various recordings such as “Adelina Patti singing The Last Rose of Summer (1905)” (http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/01/2 ... mmer-1905/), “James Joyce reading his works (1924/1929)” (http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/06/1 ... -19241929/) or these “Slovak folk songs (1928/1930)” (http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/02/1 ... gs-192830/).

The team behind the site is about to launch a new section called the “PDR Playlists”, in which the PDR works with music collectors to showcase interesting public domain material from their collections. The post would consist of a compilation of songs focusing on a particular genre, theme, or period, or could be simply songs from one record - with a little bit of accompanying text (if desired) giving a little bit of background to the selection. There are about to publish my own contributions (recordings made by French ethnographers in Congo and Gabon in the late 40’s) and they are trying to find other people willing to share their records to a wider audience. It’s a way to celebrate the preservation work done by us collectors.

Regarding the legal aspect: the key thing is that these recordings must be, at least somewhere in the world, in the public domain. Unfortunately no recordings are public domain in the U.S. But in E.U. and many other countries there are public domain recordings - for 2014, this is a song that has been written and/or arranged (music and lyrics) by someone who died prior to 1944, and recorded prior to 1964 (though this will most likely change soon to 1944). E.g. A song written and arranged by Scott Joplin (who died in 1917) and recorded in 1916 will be public domain in the E.U. It doesn't matter if the recording is not public domain in your home country, just as long as it is public domain somewhere in the world.

If you’re interested in taking part to this project or have any questions regarding the legal aspect, you can contact directly Adam Green, the editor of the Public Domain Review: [email protected].

Best wishes,

Thomas
http://ceintsdebakelite.com/

[52089]

If you are interested in public domain material in the USA, I highly recommend a book called "The Public Domain", by Stephen Fishman, J.D., published by Nolo Press.

As for the EU rules on sound recordings, I think you are blurring the distinction between the copyright on the composition, which is last author to die plus 70 years, and the copyright of the sound recording itself, which is 50 years through 2013, then goes to 70 years non-retroactively starting in 2014. In other words, in the EU, sound recordings from 1963 became PD this year, but sound recordings from 1964 become PD in 2034, not 2014. I call it the "Beatles and Rolling Stones" rule for somewhat obvious reasons

Of course to be completely "public" - and free of royalty payments - both the recording and composition must have expired copyrights, which I'm sure was your point.