The Beatles Hit Public Domain in 2013

[Jason Tate]

The UK will not extend the copyright period on sound recordings. The decision means that the earliest official recordings from The Beatles will be out of copyright in 2013 (http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&newsID=16577).

[Pascal DeMaria]

How has nobody responded to this? This is incredible. Film students will be rejoicing all over the world.

[LPMagic]

That's interesting / exciting.

I have a question, wondering if anyone knows... why can't you sing "Happy Birthday" in public domain? I've heard the answer before but I can't remember. I thought it was a song that was hundreds of years old.

- Jeff

[Tim McCall]

That's interesting / exciting.

I have a question, wondering if anyone knows... why can't you sing "Happy Birthday" in public domain? I've heard the answer before but I can't remember. I thought it was a song that was hundreds of years old.

- Jeff


I've never about that ruling before.

[gobblox is...]

i guess that's equally cool and bogus... ok fifty years have passed, the song you wrote is no longer yours. prepare to hear every beatles song used in at least one commercial in 2013.

[notoaststereo]

i dont know. but im pretty sure the song happy birthday is has a copyright on it

[Silver Bullets]

That's interesting / exciting.

I have a question, wondering if anyone knows... why can't you sing "Happy Birthday" in public domain? I've heard the answer before but I can't remember. I thought it was a song that was hundreds of years old.

- Jeff


I don't know who, but someone owns the rights.
We talked about it in my Mass Communication Law class...

[theacademyis]

That's interesting / exciting.

I have a question, wondering if anyone knows... why can't you sing "Happy Birthday" in public domain? I've heard the answer before but I can't remember. I thought it was a song that was hundreds of years old.

- Jeff

It was copyrighted as work for hire which gives it 95 years. It was copyrighted in 1935 so in 2030 it'll be out of copyright in the US

[CrazeeJaney]

Oh, wow.
Great news for media students indeed haha. I can imagine this being such an investment that most people don't want to spend the money on anymore, but once this is up... this is going to get interesting.

[tommyhaych]

It's weird to think that 2013 is only around 6 years away and 2001 was only 6 years ago. This decade has gona faassttt

[rxemptywords2]

How has nobody responded to this? This is incredible. Film students will be rejoicing all over the world.

I'm with you on this.. how the heck does this have so little replies!?
I'm guessing it's because many people don't know how this kinda stuff works..

Great/exciting newss!


what up from the rx board!

[Foo]

this article is wrong about the whole beatles thing...

Copyright lasts 50 years after the death of all the copyright owners. so what that means is that unless john lennon died in 1963 and was the sole owner of the early beatles stuff, the copyrights won't become public domain in 2013.

the reason why people can't perform happy birthday is because the song is not public domain. its actually a copyrighted song. Even though the orriginal writter died over 50 years ago, they made revisions to the song and had the revisions copyrighted with another writter (i think it was their son). by doing this, it extends the copyright until 50 years after the death of the co-writer. and then if the co-writter does a re-write with someone else, the copyright will be extended for another 50 years after the death of that person

so i guess what i'm getting at is that the beatles stuff will most likely never become public domain because of all the reissues and little rewrites that they own. and since not all of the beatles are dead, there's still a long time before those songs could potentially become public domain

[Matt_Dizzle]

this article is wrong about the whole beatles thing...

Copyright lasts 50 years after the death of all the copyright owners. so what that means is that unless john lennon died in 1963 and was the sole owner of the early beatles stuff, the copyrights won't become public domain in 2013.

the reason why people can't perform happy birthday is because the song is not public domain. its actually a copyrighted song. Even though the orriginal writter died over 50 years ago, they made revisions to the song and had the revisions copyrighted with another writter (i think it was their son). by doing this, it extends the copyright until 50 years after the death of the co-writer. and then if the co-writter does a re-write with someone else, the copyright will be extended for another 50 years after the death of that person

so i guess what i'm getting at is that the beatles stuff will most likely never become public domain because of all the reissues and little rewrites that they own. and since not all of the beatles are dead, there's still a long time before those songs could potentially become public domain


sounds right to me.

[richtsl]

sounds right to me.

No that was wrong.

The copyright in a recording is 50 years from the end of the year in which it was recorded. It has nothing to do the death of any writers.

That is the copyright in the song which last 70 years after the death of the last living writer.


This all means that even after 2013 you wont just be able to use a Beatles song without speaking to the writers because of their moral rights. And they might ask for a shit load of money. But moral rights is complex so I won't go into that.