Discussion of all things related to Public Domain

[Folklife Reading Room <folklife AT loc.gov>]

We are not allowed to choose items for people in that way.  You'll need
to browse the on-line collections and see which cuts may work.  Again,
_all_ of the songs that are on-line from the Folklife Center are OK as
far as copyright is concerned, so all you need to deal with are any
performer rights that may still apply.  So once you've chosen potential
items, please send us the list (if you use the AFS call numbers and
provide the names of the performers, that will expedite our searches as
well as make sure that we're all dealing with the same songs), and we'll 
then check our correspondence files to see if there's someone you'll need
to contact before you can disseminate the materials further.  (The
relatively-few performers or estates that we've been able to contact have
given the Library of Congress permission to use those recordings, but they
haven't given up their rights for all other users.)  

Again, all of the actual audio is on-line via the connections from the
list of our on-line collections: 
< http://www.loc.gov/folklife/onlinecollections.html >
When you go from that page to the homepages for each collection, you'll be
able to search by performer or titles, etc.   When you click on those
links, you'll come to pages where you can select a listening format (mp3
or RealAudio or wav files), depending on the speed of your browser, etc.

Our on-line music collections include WPA recordings from various ethnic
groups in Florida, from migrant camps in California, from southern states
visited by John and Ruby Lomax in 1939, from a West Virginia fiddler, from
Georgia festivals in the 1930s and 1940s, from Omaha Indian people in the
1890s and 1980s, from Spanish-speaking people in northern New Mexico and
southern Colorado, etc.  There will be many options for you to choose
from, depending on the audience you're serving.  And if you supply the
URL for the various collection homepages, people will be able to get to
those recordings and more.  (Please note that the structure of all of the
Library's American Memory collections means that the various songs do NOT
have permanent URLs:  you can't copy a link and have the same thing will
appear each time.  Instead you have to supply instructions on searching
for the song title or performer from the homepage of the collection.)

Let us know if you have additional questions about the procedures or those
idiosyncracies of the American Memory pages, etc.

Judith Gray
Reference Specialist
American Folklife Center
Library of Congress
Washington DC 20540-4610

On 28 Jun 2005, tom poe wrote:

> Hello:  Thank you for your response.  I believe the next steps, then,
> are to identify one song that is in the public domain, i.e., a song
> created prior to 1923, and then, identify from that group, a song that
> we can confidently rely on the work done by the American Folklife Center
> to get permission to publish the song (offer the link to the song,
> directly) for listeners to download, enjoy, and share with others.  Can
> you help accomplish these two steps, and provide the link for me?
> Thanks,
> Tom 
> 
> On Tue, 2005-06-28 at 14:47, Folklife Reading Room wrote:
> > On 28 Jun 2005, tom poe wrote:
> > 
> > > Hello:  Are there any recordings in your collections that are identified
> > > as belonging to our country's public domain?  If so, could you identify
> > > those songs which may be linked from our web site for listeners to enjoy
> > > and share with others?
> > > Respectfully,
> > > Tom Poe
> > > Charles City, Iowa, USA
> > 
> > 
> > "Public domain" generally refers to materials that were once under
> > copyright and on which copyright has since lapsed. So compositions that
> > were first published before 1923 are public domain.  
> > 
> > But copyright doesn't deal with performer rights.  Copyright applies to
> > the compositions themselves, typically as set down in sheet music or other
> > kinds of scores.  Sound recordings themselves were not copyrightable until
> > around 1972.  
> > 
> > So the persons who were recorded between 1890 and the early 1970s never
> > had an opportunity to copyright their artistic creations as long as those
> > were in audio format only.  At this point, it becomes a matter of ethics
> > more than of legalities.
> > 
> > For these reasons, we require good-faith attempts to contact each
> > performer or performer's estate before any of the approximately 100,000
> > hours of unpublished recordings here can be disseminated.  This work has
> > been done, for example, for each on-line presentation on our website, as
> > well as for each commercial or published release of recordings from our
> > collections.
> > 
> > So you're definitely welcome to create a link on your web site to our
> > websites: < http://www.loc.gov/folklife/onlinecollections.html >  (There
> > are over 300 hours of material, both music and spoken word, in these
> > collections.)  If you want to take excerpts from any of those collections,
> > however, please be sure to retain all of the necessary credit 
> > information:  
> > performer's name, song title, call number, collection name, American
> > Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
> > 
> > But if you would like to explore additional on-line publication, you will
> > need to select those recordings and then do the good-faith searches.  
> > We can talk you through that process.
> > 
> > If you have additional questions about the procedures, please let me know.
> > 
> > Judith Gray
> > Reference Specialist
> > American Folklife Center
> > Library of Congress
> > Washington DC 20540-4610
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
>