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Pretty complex subject, eh?

I try to stay with PD stuff to avoid problems. One thing that I've found confusing is that someone will record an old song that was originally written prior to 1921/22 and claim a copyright, which appears to be simply a copyright of their arrangement.

Your thoughts?

Don S.


Yes, you can copyright arrangements and/or performance versions, but it's a little tricky. For a long time, if you went to BMI, and did a search for "Kum Ba Ya", my name would come up as the writer of the song. Our manager sent in the copyright as a "songwriter's copyright", not the correct "performance copyright".