Quote:
Originally Posted by WitchyWoman
Great site, BUT it constantly said in PD in the US, how does this stand worldwide, europe etc?
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Well, here's the breakdown of the relationship between the US copyright laws and international copyright law:
International Copyright Law
The Berne Convention is an international treaty standardizing copyright protection since 1886. In 1994 a "General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)" was signed by 117 countries, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) was created in Geneva, Switzerland, to enforce compliance with the agreement. GATT includes a section covering copyrights called the "Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property" (TRIPS) U.S. law was amended to be essentially consistent with GATT by the "Uruguay Round Agreements Act" (URAA) in 1994 and the "Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act" in 1998. Despite GATT, copyright protection varies greatly from country to country, and extreme caution must be exercised on all international usage of any intellectual property.
Rule of Thumb for Public Domain Music
Works published in the United States with a copyright date of 1922 or earlier are in the public domain in the United States.
Copyright protection outside the USA is determined by the laws of the country where you wish to use a work. Copyright protection may be 95 years from publication date, 50 to 70 years after the death of the last surviving author, or other criteria depending on where the work was first published and how the work is to be used.
I hope that's not too much gobbledy speak. Basically the deal is
extreme caution must be exercised on all international usage of any intellectual property.
There are cross-licensing agreements for songs all over the world all the time. Any rules can be forged as long as they're agreed upon by both parties. The rule of thumb is to follow the copyright laws of the tune of the country of origin.
Steve