Can the copyright status for unreleased musical work expire This may be an iterative of a common question, though I feel the specific scenario justifies asking. Is there an established guideline regarding the longevity of copyright protection status for an unreleased piece of music? Assuming a musician has written a musical passage which went unrecorded and unpublished, would its copyright as an unreleased work still stand forty, fifty years on, assuming the author has not taken further steps to copyright its contents during that time? Would a third-party who produces a derivative of that work for commercial or personal gain five decades after its authorship be liable for damages to the author? Could damages be claimed in a personal use case? (ie: re-recording the work and publishing it electronically at no cost?)
Yes Such a work might well still be protected by copyright after 50 years. The time that copyright protection will remain in force depends on the country where the work was created (normally where the author was living). In some countries it will also depend on when the creation occurred. In many countries such protection lasts for 70 years after the death of the author. Under US law recent works use the &quot;life of the author+70 years&quot; rule. Works created before 1978 may be protected for 95 or 120 years after creation, depending on the circumstances. See This well-known chart for details. If the work is protected by copyright, preparing a new derivative work, or performing or distributing the original or a derivative work are all copyright infringement, and the owner could sue. This is true whether a fee is charged or the work is performed or distributed for free. Exploiting the work for commercial profit might increase the amount of damages available, however. If the author has not published or exploited the work for 50 years or more, the author might not choose to sue, but that is entirely the author's decision. The author would have the right to sue, and given the facts as described in the question, to collect some damages. There is not enough information in the question to guess how large the damages could be. In the US 17 USC 504 provides for statutory damages, which the court has significant discretion on the amount of, with no proof of economic loss. Specifically this law says: (c) Statutory Damages.— (1) Except as provided by clause (2) of this subsection, the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just. For the purposes of this subsection, all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work. (2) In a case where the copyright owner sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that infringement was committed willfully, the court in its discretion may increase the award of statutory damages to a sum of not more than $150,000. In a case where the infringer sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that such infringer was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright, the court in its discretion may reduce the award of statutory damages to a sum of not less than $200. The court shall remit statutory damages in any case where an infringer believed and had reasonable grounds for believing that his or her use of the copyrighted work was a fair use under section 107, if the infringer was: (i) an employee or agent of a nonprofit educational institution, library, or archives acting within the scope of his or her employment who, or such institution, library, or archives itself, which infringed by reproducing the work in copies or phonorecords; or (ii) a public broadcasting entity which or a person who, as a regular part of the nonprofit activities of a public broadcasting entity (as defined in section 118(f )) infringed by performing a published nondramatic literary work or by reproducing a transmission program embodying a performance of such a work. In short, the mere lapse of 50 years does not make the unpublished musical work free for use without permission.
Yes Both melody and lyrics source back to the middle ages, as for instance described here. The difficulty could be to make sure you rely your derived work on a variant that is really in the public domain. E.g. if you use notes or lyrics from the Simon &amp; Garfunkel version and derive from there, you might violate their copyright.
Copyright law treats computer files containing text as &quot;copies&quot; and computer files containing sound as &quot;phonorecords&quot;. Indeed it must, otherwise there would be no copyright protection for ebooks and for downloadable music. Thus, I would take 17 U.S. Code §121 to apply. The word &quot;material&quot; in copyright law has been held to include &quot;stored in electronic form on any storage device&quot; so that the key requirement for an initial copyright, that the work be &quot;fixed in a tangible form&quot; or &quot;fixed in any tangible medium of expression&quot; is satisfied by a computer file, see 17 USC 102 17 USC 121 reads: it is not an infringement of copyright for an authorized entity to reproduce or to distribute in the United States copies or phonorecords of a previously published literary work ... if such copies or phonorecords are reproduced or distributed in accessible formats exclusively for use by eligible persons. Note that the page &quot;Copyright and Digital Files&quot; describes computer files recorded in a computer or on disk as &quot;copies&quot; as in deed does 17 USC 117 This establishes that such files are copies, and thus consist of &quot;materiel objects&quot;. The official US copyright office page on &quot;Can I Use Someone Else's Work? Can Someone Else Use Mine?&quot; reads: Whether or not a particular work is being made available under the authority of the copyright owner is a question of fact. But since any original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium (including a computer file) is protected by federal copyright law upon creation, in the absence of clear information to the contrary, most works may be assumed to be protected by federal copyright law. (emphasis added) Copyright Office Circular 1: &quot;Copyright Basics&quot; reads: A work is “fixed” when it is captured (either by or under the authority of an author) in a sufficiently permanent medium such that the work can be perceived, reproduced, or communicated for more than a short time. A computer file is petty clearly &quot;sufficiently permanent&quot; for this purpose. Also consider Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc 886 F. 3d 1179 As this web page reports: In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that Google's use of Oracle's software code in developing the Android operating system constituted a fair use under §107 of the Copyright Act. The use would not have been fair use unless the code was protected by copyright, and the code almost surely existed only in the form of computer files. Thus the US Supreme Court has treated computer files as &quot;materiel objects&quot; for purposes of copyright law. (Note also that the use was declared to be infringement unless fair use applied, which leads even more directly to the same conclusion.)
You cannot claim copyright protection of the underlying work, but you can claim protection for your contribution. Under 17 USC 101, the resulting work is a derivative work: A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”. As an "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression", the work is protected by copyright law: but that only applies to the modifications that you added.
It is possible to abandon copyright ... maybe. However, this game has not been abandoned. When the owner of the company was liquidated, the copyright became the legal property of the liquidator in trust for the creditors. It is for him or her to decide how to deal with the property but the copyright still exists until 70 years after the author(s) death. If you allow downloads you are breaching copyright unless you have permission (or you meet the Fair Dealing criteria - you probably don't). The person to seek permission from is the liquidator od the company. If you get sued they do not need to demonstrate financial loss - copyright claims can either be pursued for actual or statutory damages, that is, a fixed amount per violation. In addition, in egregious cases, copyright violation is a crime prosecutable by the state.
The answer will depend on the license you entered into with the publisher. Assuming that he has an exclusive license, there is no way you can publish the same work again against the will of the publisher or his successor. His right under the license will come to an end 70 years after the author or last co-author has passed away. What you can do is to create a new work that is so distinct that it does not infringe the right of the licensee, the publisher. If the new is original enough, you will have a new copyright.
Short answer: §§ 64 ff. UrhG is not a defense (Einwendung) but an integral/constitutional component of copyright. Accordingly the party favoring the fact that a work is (still) copyrighted has the burden of proof. Long answer: Copyright cases are divided into four steps: Copyrightable work? (Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Werk?) Applicable exploitation rights? (Tangierte Nutzungsrechte?) Exceptions? (Schrankenregelungen?) Damages. (Schadensersatz) In a civil action suit parties need to present facts, § 282 ZPO (Beibringungsgrundsatz). The court/state does not investigate anything. That means the plaintiff contending that he has a claim for damages needs to demonstrate that it’s a copyrightable work, they are the copyright holder, and you infringed their rights. For the last item you may face an obligation to disclose certain evidence as per §§ 101 ff. UrhG. The plaintiff can actually simply claim anything; until you dispute their claims it is believed to be true, § 138 Ⅲ, 288 ZPO. Yet still, lying about hard facts is forbidden, § 138 Ⅰ ZPO (Wahrheitspflicht). Claiming the work’s creator was alive in 1952 even though they very well know he was not is illegal. On the other hand since you are relying on §§ 64/65 Ⅰ, 129 Ⅰ 1 UrhG, that is the circumstance copyright has expired 70 complete calendar years after the (last co)author’s death, § 69 UrhG, you will need to contest any claim copyright did not expire (subjektive Behauptungslast). No copyright protection → no damages. Otherwise it is believed there was no issue about this. The plaintiff will then again need to produce evidence that copyright has not expired. It is the plaintiff who seeks damages under § 97 Ⅱ 1 UrhG so they have the burden of proof regarding all requirements of this legal basis.
For a particular poem(s) the copyright term in ROK is Life + 50 years. In copyright, these are measured as calendar years so it will enter the public domain on 1 January 2019. That is, unless you plan to use it in a country that doesn't observe the rule of the shorter term (like the USA) - in those countries it may still be under copyright based on the term using their individual domestic law. Ask another question if you want this clarified. Copyright in the anthology belongs to the person who created that work i.e. the editor(s) who selected and arranged those particular poems from those particular poets. The duration is measured from the (last of) the editor's death(s). IF you are not copying or deriving from the anthology (i.e. you are only using one of the poets and are arranging them in a different way), this is irrelevant to you.