Post-1923 works in US public domain

[Starrmark]

It is generally assumed that all musical works first published in the US and in copyright-treaty countries from 1923-on are now protected for 95 years from date of first publication -- but, in fact, a portion (possibly a substantial portion) of these works are now in the public domain. These include works that were first published without a proper statement of copyright, and copyrighted works first published between 1923 and 1963 that were not renewed.

According to information on the LoC website, the Copyright Office's online database of US copyrights begins in 1978 and runs up to the present. Consequently, there are no means to check the true copyright status of works first published between 1923 and 1978 -- other than paying the Copyright Office a substantial fee to run a copyright check in its pre-1978 card catalogs; or paying a private researcher to do the same; or traveling to Washington and checking the card catalogs yourself.

For IMSLP, the lack of a practical means to check the true copyright status in the US of works first published between 1923 and 1978 means that numerous works (including many in the standard repertoire) are excluded, when in fact they are now in the public domain in both Canada (50 years p.m.) and in the US.

Is there any effort now being made (either by government or non-governmental organizations) to post online the LoC's pre-1978 card catalog of copyrights and renewals? I know early US Census records have been scanned -- but they are difficult to search because they are handwritten. If the Copyright Office's card catalog's entries were typewritten, they might be readable by OCR.

Since the works first published in 1923-1978 will generally be assumed to be protected in the US until 2018-2073 -- when in fact many of them are now in the public domain -- it seems to me the US government has an obligation to make this information generally accessible to the public. After all, this problem affects all copyrights from this period -- not just sheet music. In lieu of the government, some foundation should step up to the plate. Maybe even Google.

Here is a project worthy of federal stimulus money. Shades of the WPA.

MS

[Carolus]

The short answer to your question is "no." There are a few volumes of the Catalog of Copyright Entries which have been scanned by Google, but only a couple of volumes covering the years in question (1923-1950). Stanford University has a very nice DB for Class A items from this period (Books), but music (Class E) had its own volumes for both registrations and renewals. Supposedly, there are specially designated Federal Depository Libraries which have the complete run of volumes for the CCE. Being government publications which are public domain, it should be perfectly legal for anyone to scan the volumes and upload them to this site, or to the Internet Archive. Not an easy task (the volumes in question are typically more than 1000 pages), but certainly worthwhile. BTW, foreign works which failed the notice, registration and renewal requirements are often eligible for the infamous "restoration" under GATT/TRIPS. US works failing these requirements really are public domain (not eligible for "restoration"). Not all US publishers were on the ball about this, either.

[Starrmark]

Many thanks, Carolus, for the clear and authoritative response.

You wrote: "BTW, foreign works which failed the notice, registration and renewal requirements are often eligible for the infamous "restoration" under GATT/TRIPS." What factors determine whether a foreign work that failed the requirements can have its copyright restored? Does the publisher have to apply for restoration, or is it automatic?

MS

[Carolus]

The copyright claimant has to file a NIE (Notice of Intent to Enforce) with the Copyright Office. The work must have been under copyright in its country of origin on 1/1/1996. Under some interpretations, NIEs must have been filed within a two-year window of 1/1/1996 in order to be enforceable in the USA (no court cases testing this idea yet).

[haydenmuhl]

Is anyone here aware of this site?

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/

It seems to have some of the CCE volumes about musical compositions being discussed in this thread.

[pml]

For many of the individual years after 1950, the summary of items at the upenn.edu website includes the phrase “everything except music”, which isn’t as helpful as one would have liked! But some of the years from 1950 onwards do include the musical renewals.

The records from 1923 to 1949 look fairly complete (links to google) but again some years have only half (or none) of the musical registrations.

archive.org certainly has scans of almost all of the volumes from 1970 to 1977, including the music volumes.

Cheers, PML

[Carolus]

I've obtained copies of the 1971-1977 volumes form archive.org and will be uploading them to the wiki soon. This will enable us to check for renewals on items back to 1943.

[olmsted]

... [Works currently in the public domain] include ... copyrighted works first published between 1923 and 1963 that were not renewed.

... the Copyright Office's online database of US copyrights begins in 1978 .... Consequently, there are no means to check the true copyright status of works first published between 1923 and 1978 -- other than paying the Copyright Office a substantial fee to run a copyright check in its pre-1978 card catalogs; or paying a private researcher to do the same; or traveling to Washington and checking the card catalogs yourself.

I had a slightly different understanding. For 1923-63 works, I thought that the renewal registration was required to be made in the 28th year of the original copyright period. (The precise dates are more complicated but not important for this discussion.) Therefore -- I thought -- the fact that the Copyright Office's database starts in 1978 allows you to check the renewal status of works that were first published after about 1950.

A work published in 1951, for example, is in the public domain today unless its copyright was renewed by registration in roughly 1979. If the Copyright Office database does not contain that renewal registration, >1978, the copyright lapsed.

If that is not the case, I am truly confused.

[KGill]

... Consequently, there are no means to check the true copyright status of works first published between 1923 and 1978

I had a slightly different understanding. For 1923-63 works, I thought that the renewal registration was required to be made in the 28th year of the original copyright period. (The precise dates are more complicated but not important for this discussion.) Therefore -- I thought -- the fact that the Copyright Office's database starts in 1978 allows you to check the renewal status of works that were first published after about 1950.

I believe I am not incorrect in asserting that the bolded text was some sort of typo; the original poster almost certainly meant "between 1923 and 1950" rather than 1978. Your understanding is correct

[haydenmuhl]

Sorry for the bump, but I didn't feel like this required its own thread. I need a quick sanity check on US copyright duration.

I've been looking into the copyright status of a work published in 1924 (Were you there? by H.T. Burleigh). I looked through the copyright catalogs at the U Penn site, and the song was renewed in 1952. Does that one renewal now protect the song for the full 95 year copyright term allowed under US law? In other words, it will enter the public domain in 2019?

[Carolus]

Yes. It's protected for the whole outrageous 95-year term.