[Asterisk-Users] MOH: Copyright issues?

[Alex Volkov]

AFAIK, in US the copyright expires 25 years after the original copyright
holder (author, recording artist, but not sure about an assignee) dies, or
after ~70 years from the date of creation (in cases where a corporation
holds a copyright for sure), but do not hold your breath, as the companies
like Disney constantly lobby to extend this period, otherwise you would
certainly see Mickey Mouse cartoons in public domain by now.
As far as royalties are concerned, I suppose MOH in US  for some company
could be considered on par with a bar, which translates to pennies per
played song, as long as no more than ~100 people are listening to it at
once.
But please do not take this a as sound law advice, as I am no lawyer ;-).

Cheers!
Alex.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Capouch" <brianc at palaver.net>
To: <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 3:14 AM
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] MOH: Copyright issues?


> After reading a (hopefully) joke web news article today that said the
> RIAA was thinking about asking automobile owners to pay extra royalties
> when there's more than one passenger in the car, I began to worry about
>   putting the classic 1974 Pointer Sisters' tune, "Little Pony" in my
> mohmp3 directory.
>
> I know I can always explicitly search out "royalty free" music, but I
> wonder if my 50+ year old recordings of The Sons of the Pioneers, or the
> CD of Clara Rockmore playing a Theremin I bought at the Exploratorium,
> would wind up with me in the slammer (or the poorhouse!!) if I put them
> on my system?
>
> Does anyone know a way of knowing where a given recording of a song
stands?
>
> Thx.
>
> B.
>
>