RE: [dvd-discuss] Gaming the system (was: Specific ironies of the CTEA)

["Richard Hartman" <hartman(at)onetouch.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeremy Erwin [mailto:jerwin@ponymail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 5:34 PM
> To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: [dvd-discuss] Gaming the system (was: Specific ironies of
> the CTEA)
> 
> 
> 
> On Thursday, December 12, 2002, at 08:03  PM, Kurt Hockenbury wrote:
> 
> > [*] For that matter, this discrepancy means that in the 
> case of music, 
> > where
> > the song and the recording have seperate copyrights, the song 
> > belonging to the
> > author and the recording to the studio, the two expire at different 
> > times
> > unless the author dies exactly 25 years after recording.  If the 
> > author dies
> > earlier, the song enters the public domain before his or 
> her recording 
> > does,
> > by up to 25 years.  On the other hand, if the author recorded young 
> > (say 15)
> > but lives a long time (100, like Strom Thurman), then the recording 
> > will enter
> > the public domain sixty years before the song does.
> 
> Interesting. Suppose the recording enters the public domain, 
> before the 
> song does. Technically, the recording is a derivative work of 
> the song. 
> If an individual chooses to distribute the now PD recording, 
> could his 
> actions be thwarted by the songwriter's estate?
> 

I don't think so.  But that individual could not make
a recording of his own performance of that song and
distribute that w/o paying royalties.

In the opposite case, he _could_ make and distribute
a cover before he would be able to distribute copies
of the original recording.

-- 
-Richard M. Hartman
hartman@onetouch.com

186,000 mi/sec: not just a good idea, it's the LAW!