The Silent Treatment

The Raven

Ikon Class
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Location
The Poconos, USA
Ok, so here's a question for all you folks who run reissue labels (and all you bloggers too) here: when you are prepapring to put together a quality *legit* reissue of vintage *un-copyrighted* music by a deceased artist what do you do when their closest surviving family members are either untraceable or wont respond to your attempts to get 'official' permission to reissue said music? ....i mean, how can you cover tracks in terms of avoiding legal trouble in that situation?
 
Ok, so here's a question for all you folks who run reissue labels (and all you bloggers too) here: when you are prepapring to put together a quality *legit* reissue of vintage *un-copyrighted* music by a deceased artist what do you do when their closest surviving family members are either untraceable or wont respond to your attempts to get 'official' permission to reissue said music? ....i mean, how can you cover tracks in terms of avoiding legal trouble in that situation?

I am not a copyright lawyer..... I do know a little about the process. Are you absolutely positive that the song or songs have not been copyrighted? Just looking the song up on the BMI or ASCAP database does not mean that they have not been copyrighted. Have you done a copyright search?

Here is a link to the circular on obtaining a "notice of Use" through the copyright office. It may help.You nned to cut and paste these links into your browser.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ73.pdf

Also below is a link of scanned copy's of Copyright entries for 1957 through the 70's. It may be worth the time to search the writer in these volumes to see if the song appears in these volumes.

http://archive.org/search.php?query=copyright entries AND subject:"Copyright Records – Music"
 
All songs are copyrighted once the creator "creates" the work. Registration with the copyright office is just that- a registration, meaning that the work is listed in their archive, and makes it easy if some legal situation surfaces.
The person who copyrights the work is not always the "creator" of the work. They may own the publishing, rights, for example, but not the song itself.
Therefore, every 45rpm is copyrighted by its creator (the songwriter) whether or not they are aware of the registration process.
My suggestion to you is that if you do have verification of the owner of the material you wish to reissue, and that said owner did not respond to your efforts or inquires, you must either
cease efforts, or find another individual who may have some claim to the material.
Otherwise you can go ahead and do an unauthorized project without any consent, and take your chances.
 
Ohio Garage, thanks for the legal links, your help with that means alot, i will check them later on today....Mop Top, the *potential* reissue I am working on consists of material that was released in small editions by the artist himself on custom cassettes without any publisher or label involved or even a pressing plant. Further more, I might also be issuing vintage stuff that has never ever been released before, stuff that probably has only been heard by it's creator and me and and an archivist and almost no one else, not even the artist's family.....furthermore, I will have to do a bit more research into registration documents, but numerous well informed sources close to the artist and some of my own recent research has proven that literally nothing this artist has done was ever registered with any copyright office....i am not looking for an easy out or a 'pass', i realize that putting out something without the next of kin's permission will be sketchy no matter how above board i do everything else(i.e., i am not keepiong any money if the project comes out, it will benefit for several charities)...I guess i'm just trying to weigh my options and see exactly what risks are out there before i jump into the water with this thing.
 
If there is no copyright registration for any of the songs, I would type up a legal / professional type document, explaining why you want to reissue the material, and provide a clear and detailed financial breakdown of monies that would be given to the estate of the owner as a result of your project. Having this approach demonstrates your intent to the estate; perhaps they will realize you aren't trying to scam them or aren't just "all talk" by doing so.
 
Mike, definitely, the idea of an itemized list of manufacturing/distro costs has been a part of the plan for awhile. I wanted to bring that into the picture after I had actually talked to next of kin, but unfortunately I've gotten no communication from one relative and another seems to be way way off the grid....there's also the fact that i know where one of the next of kin actually lives, but, as you probably know, an unexpected in-person visit in a situation like this can be weird and potentially off putting, so at best, thats a last resort....in general, i am way more worried about pissing off the family than getting sued.