What are the copyright rules?

MichaelHorowitz

Harry Fox is THE licensing agency for songs...however you can only license songs that they have the publishing rights for. Many of Django's songs are there, but very few compositions by other Gypsies.

guit_box

I think we paid around $700 to license our last cd and we made 500 or less copies, I don't remember the exact number of copies. I'm noticing that several gypsy jazz cds will have combinations of public domain songs, originals, and a couple of famous GJ songs like Minor Swing and Nuages. I suppose for advertising reasons, you want to have a couple tunes that everyone knows to give them a reason to buy the cd -- most people want to hear music they're familiar with.

klaatu

Michael Horowitz wrote:

Harry Fox is THE licensing agency for songs...

That would be true for the US. Each country would typically have its own agency. In Canada, it's the CMRRA.

One thing we learned in doing our first CD is that you should check out the copyright arrangements for all of your songs with the appropriate agency BEFORE you begin recording. You may learn that some of the songs you have selected are still under copyright, but the pertinent agency does not have the rights to it. This usually means you have to go directly to the publisher or even the composer, if you can find them, which may be more of a hassle than you want to take on. We wound up throwing out two songs and recording two others as a result of this.

We also discovered that the CMRRA sometimes lists a song more than once, and the copyright information may vary with the listing. In particular, some of Django's songs may be listed once under Django's name only and elsewhere as joint authorship by Django and Stephane (or someone else - typically this would be someone who transcribed it for Django, as Stephane often did). Since the copyright expires 50 years after the death of the author(s) in Canada, this can be significant. Django died over 50 years ago, so a song listed under his name only is public domain in Canada, whereas a listing under multiple names will probably show it as being still under copyright. We applied for a couple of songs using the exact CMRRA ID number to make sure we got the public domain version.

The rule is 75 years in the US, so the exact authorship is a moot point in many cases there. The message is, make sure you understand the laws in your own country very well before proceeding.

djangology

The rule is 75 years in the US, so the exact authorship is a moot point in many cases there.

Wikipedia says "28 years (if copyright not renewed) or 95 years for works copyrighted 1923-1963; 95 years for works copyrighted 1964-1977; thereafter "life plus 70 years". (Copyrights prior to 1923 have expired.)"

So, all of Djangos music is under the 95 year rule unless , by chance, someone forgot to renew copyright on something he did. If Djangos music was on the life+70 rule then it would all be public domain in 2023 but I believe its not, but rather all of his music is on the straight 95 year rule.