[cc-community] question about US public domain license and use in europe
Pablo Rodríguez
oinos at web.de
Sun Jun 21 04:06:48 EDT 2009
paolocasalis at libero.it wrote:
> Hi,I'm an italian filmaker and I would like to use a couple of songs for this
> collection in my indapendent documentary movie.
> For example a song by edith
> piaf from here
> http://www.archive.org/details/EdithPiaf-31-40
Hi Paolo,
I'm not a lawyer and my comments cannot be considered legal advice in
any way.
It seems that the original songs are in the public domain in the US and
the restored works (the digital recordings) have been released to the
public domain again (using the public domain dedication).
(I wonder whether this public domain dedication is valid, because I
guess that the digital restoration doesn't meet the requirement of
originality that US copyright law needs to grant protection. [I might be
well missing something on this and this is not the point].)
> I've seen the
> type of license is only valid for the U.S.
Public domain is not a license and after the copyright protection term
works pass into the public domain worldwide (as far as I can remember,
they pass into the public domain at least in Europe).
> Can someone please tell me something
> about using this type of license in europe?
Dedications to the public domain are only valid in the US because
continental law considers that moral rights cannot be waived by the
author (US has almost no moral rights protection in copyright).
> In a few words:can I use these
> songs also in europe or not?
My guess is that it might be possible because in the EU sound recordings
or phonograms copyright protection lasts for 50 years after publication
(music and lyrics enjoy the standard copyright protection in the EU: 70
years after author's death). These recordings might be in the public
domain also in EU.
But remember that have to check both the release date of the original
recordings and the public domain status in Europe with a copyright lawyer.
(And beware, because it seems that one of the songs might not be Edith
Piaf according to the first comment.)
> thanks
> paolo www.unpassodopoaltro.it (movie
> dedicated website)
The website seems not to work yet :-(.
I hope it helps,
Pablo
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