Has it truly expired Joe? Even Stephen Foster's music of the mid-1800s is still protected by copyright, to the best of my knowledge.

I collect OTR (Old Time Radio) and, just recently, copyrights were made renewable meaning, in this case, another 75 years. Granted, that probably wont apply internationally and may be different in your home country. As for the USA, follow Mac's advice.

I believe the same renewal option was granted to music copyright holders. The governing regulations (for USA) have changed in 2012 so be sure to check before releasing anything.

These are the same laws that we expect to protect our works so don't abuse them when they are protecting the works of others.

We are all aware of high profile cases of John Doe being fined $25,000.00 for using copyrighted music on his website.

Edit: Legal use of copyrighted music is not prohibitive. My Canadian cousin just released an album of cover songs but she paid the modest fees and can sleep nights.

Last edited by Don Gaynor; 02/08/13 09:39 AM.
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