Copyrights on sound recordings

[Starrmark]

Now that IMSLP is posting sound recordings of many works, what is IMSLP's policy on protection of sound recordings? Will you follow Canadian copyright law, or US Copyright law, or both? What kinds of recordings can be uploaded?

I don't know what are the provisions of Canadian copyright law covering sound recordings. But in the US, the 1972 Copyright Act retroactively protected until 2047 all previous recordings going back to Edison's "Mary had a little lamb", and the Sonny Bono Act extended that term to 2067. Post 1972 recordings are protected for 95 years. So there is no PD for sound recordings in the US.

What recordings can be posted on IMSLP? Non-commercial recordings? Radio broadcasts? Cylinders, 78s, piano rolls? In countless recordings, the performers are dead and the record company is defunct -- so there is no practical way today to obtain permission. On the other hand, for countless old recordings, no one today can claim and prove ownership.

MS

[KGill]

Will you follow Canadian copyright law, or US Copyright law, or both?

I'm not quite sure what you mean to suggest by this - copyright tagging for audio files works exactly the same way as it does for PDFs (i.e., it has to be PD-CA to be on the site, but there are also tags for the US and EU status). It's true that the question has not yet been asked whether sound files will go on the new US server - but the whole thing is so new that it may not be advisable to consider it at this point anyway.
Nearly all of the recordings we have fall into the categories of either living performers releasing their recordings under a CC license (Carolus uploaded a bunch of those) or living composers releasing audio (in many cases computerized) of their own works. There are only a few cases of 'older' recordings being uploaded to the site so far (see here and here for a couple examples). I think all of these were recorded from piano rolls and released under a CC license.

[Starrmark]

copyright tagging for audio files works exactly the same way as it does for PDFs (i.e., it has to be PD-CA to be on the site, but there are also tags for the US and EU status

Wiki states:
"A recording is public domain in Canada if the last surviving performer or other contributor has been dead for at least 50 years."

So, does that mean IMSLP will post recordings in which the last surviving performer or other contributor has been dead for at least 50 years -- with a tag non-PD-US? Or will such a recording be blocked?

Incidentally, the website of CANADA: Library and Archives has 15,000 recordings online.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gram ... dex-e.html


MS

[KGill]

does that mean IMSLP will post recordings in which the last surviving performer or other contributor has been dead for at least 50 years -- with a tag non-PD-US? Or will such a recording be blocked?

Could be either or neither (or both), depending on the recording. Both of the links I included in my last post are to recordings of rolls produced by performers who died over 50 years ago, posthumously released under CC by the modern-day recorder (so not PD in the US, but it still means the file is released for download).
I'm no expert on the subject, but IIRC the retroactive extension is optional and certainly not enforced across the board, as there are as you say many copyright owners of sound recordings that have long since ceased to exist. Needless to say, it's a pretty confusing and nebulous area of the law...