Date:         Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:46:25 -0500
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         "Steven C. Barr(x)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Some potential bad news ...
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Fine" <[log in to unmask]>
> The worst is the sitting on stuff in the vaults. There needs to be a mechanism
where if something is
> out of print, if it stays out of print xx years it's considered "abandoned" or
something akin and
> thus a niche-reissuer could get hold of the material, paying the actual
copyright owner a royalty.
> My belief is, if you own the copyright and it's been in public distribution,
you have the right to
> collect royalties for however many years the law says but you shouldn't have
the right to lock
> something away in a vault because you do not know how to sell profitably to a
niche audience.
>
> This all might be resolved by the online per-song model, which requires less
of an audience for
> profitability in most cases. However, what about the vast holdings that were
never digitized and
> thus there is a substantial cost involved in making the material available
online? It's an
> interesting problem ...
>
Okeh...my thoughts!

First, I'd like to see a "use it or lose it" policy on the copyrights.
Whenever a given sound recording is no longer readily available to
potential purchasers (that would have to be defined legally), said
recording falls into the public domain (alternatively, falls into
a "mandatory license" situation)...!

Second, in the case of 99.99% of the affected sound recordings
(i.e. NOT Elvis, possibly not Glenn Miller...?), they get digitized
and web-posted by people or institutions who love them...NOT by
parties expecting to get filthy rich...!

Steven C. Barr