Many thanks for the last batch of digests.  I tried the FTP today
and  it didn't work this time either.  Please take a look at  the

 [ Editor's Note:  My apologies that the FTP site is not
 [ working correctly for you.  I'm going to be out of town
 [ on business so I'll be at least a week before I can get
 [ to this.  I recognize that as our visibility continues
 [ to increase, this will be more and more of a problem.
 [ Has anyone else had any problems ?

attached LONG note and forward it  to  the list only if  you feel
that it should be.  It may be a dead issue by now or it may--more
likely--cover ground well covered before  I  came  on  the scene.
Drop the whole thing or edit out parts, as  you  see fit, if that
is the case.

 [ Some of what is below feels like review, but I'm still
 [ uncertain enough about how the rules apply that any review
 [ is good.  I'm enclosing the text without editing it.
 [
 [ I am curious, though.  Music seems to come in several
 [ forms.  There's the original score.  There's performances
 [ of that score.  Both of these may be copyrighted.  I've been
 [ told that the rules regarding licensing and royalties vary
 [ substantially depending on whether its a "score" or a "performance".
 [ Is this true ?  If so, then is a roll a score or a performance ?
 [ Is an EPROM, floppy, FTP'd file, etc  containing a tune a score,
 [ or a performance ?  Does the representation matter (MIDI events,
 [ audio samples, etc).
 [
 [ What about "proprietary" file formats of various music editing
 [ programs.  Are we allowed to discuss them here ?  Are we allowed
 [ to write non-commercial programs that do file conversions ?
 [ Can we exchange or sell such programs ?  What laws apply ?
 [ I realize this is not a forum of lawyers, but I'd like to
 [ keep the discussion going in this area

I am still reading and digesting the knowledge you, Robbie, John
Grant, and others are sharing out  here  about  roll reading technology.
I will have some questions, but I don't even know what they are at the
moment.  My goal is not to be dependent on Play-Rite for copies of
Wurlitzer rolls.

 [ My hope is that our hobby (and for some of us commercial) interests
 [ in roll archival don't turn out to be a legal mess.  I do hope
 [ that with the correct caveats we can continue to pursue the
 [ technical issues of archival here.

Here comes the attachment:¶
------------------------------------------¶
THIS IS AN ATTACHMENT TO THE ABOVE MESSAGE¶
------------------------------------------¶
I come late to this discussion and because I  am  not yet able to
FTP  to Jody's site to pick up past digests but must rely on  her
patience to Email them to  me selectively, I  have not  read your
posts on the subject of copyright.  However there are a couple of
points in Stephen Kent Goodman's note  of 95.08.26 that  I  would
like to expand upon.  (By  the  way  I  have his  two  Eau Claire
ragtime tapes and they are splendid)

The Copyright Act  of 1976 extended all copyrights that  had  not
expired as  of January 1, 1978 (that being the date the 1976  act
took effect, superseding the Copyright Act of 1909)--and one must
take into account the fact that during the several years prior to
1976  when Congress was debating the provisions of  the  act,  it
kept  passing interim legislation the  effect  of  which  was  to
extend the  period  of protection for  works  whose copyright was
expiring during  that  interim  period,  because  Congress  fully
realized that  it  was  on  the threshold  of  changing copyright
duration  from  the then-applicable 28-plus-28  years  to  a  new
longer  protection period--so  that  copyright  would  expire  on
December 31 of the 75th year from the date of original copyright.
That means that, assuming proper renewal of copyright in the 28th
year of  the original copyright term under the 1909 act (which is
a safe thing to assume for  any really successful book or musical
composition), works written, or  music arranged, after January 1,
1921,  is PROBABLY still protected today.  But  it  is guaranteed
that everything created prior to January 1, 1921, is now  in  the
public domain.  And  on January 1, 1997, copyright protection for
1921 works will expire, and so on year by year until there are no
works left covered by the Copyright Act of 1909 at all.  The 1976
act  provides  quite  different  copyright  provisions  from  any
previously known  in  the  United States, modeling  itself  after
European and international custom.  The  concept  of  common  law
copyright was abolished, copyright vests upon creation and is not
related to publication or non-publication (nor for that matter to
registration--though registration is a prudent precaution).  Nor,
since U.S. adherence to the Berne Convention on March 1, 1989, is
a copyright notice on copies of a work now required (though again
it  is prudent and  its absence will probably influence a court's
decision on awarding damages to  a party whose copyright has been
infringed).  Copyright in a work of personal authorship lasts for
the life of the author (or, in  the case of multiple authors, the
last survivor) plus  50 years.  For works of corporate authorship
or anonymous works (defined as  works whose author has  not  been
revealed to  the Copyright Office) the  term  of copyright is  75
years  from  date  of publication  or  100  years  from  date  of
creation, whichever expires first.

Here comes the part germane to this list: the 1976  act  was  the
first  act  to  extend copyright protection  to  sound recordings
(which includes music rolls).  Prior to 1972, the only protection
for  sound recordings was  under common law  or  under individual
State law.   On February 15, 1972, the  first Federal anti-piracy
legislation took effect, but  that  is  not copyright protection,
and  it  covers  only  sound recordings fixed  since February 15,
1972.  The Copyright Act  of  1976, which does offer copyright to
any sound recording made January 1,  1978  or later, specifically
provides  that   sound  recordings  fixed   before  February  15,
1972--which is  most  of  what interests us--will continue to  be
covered only  by applicable common law  and  State statutes until
February 15, 2047.  That  means  that  the question of rights and
protection of  old music rolls is  a very unclear one, especially
in view of the difficulty of tracing the devolvement of ownership
rights for companies that  are defunct or  that  have merged many
times over.  It also means that none of  us will live to  see the
day when  old music rolls will  be unequivocally and indisputably
in the public domain.

Play-Rite, for example, puts  a copyright notice  on  rolls  made
since 1978 and  had  been using a warning stamp referring to  the
1972 anti-piracy act  on  rolls  made before that  date.   But  I
question its right  to  claim ownership in  sound recordings that
are merely copies of very old rolls, as most  of  its  band organ
rolls and other rolls are.  John Malone told me  that  he  has  a
letter from Farny Wurlitzer giving him rights to Wurlitzer rolls.
That conflicts with  the story that Farny  told  Dave Bowers that
anybody was free  to  copy  his stuff at will--not to mention the
cloud cast on  the transmission of legal rights by this series of
sales: Wurlitzer  sold  its  roll department to  Allan  Herschell
Company, which sold to Ralph Tussing, whose estate sold  to Doyle
Lane, who sold  to  John Malone and  his partners.  What  a legal
mess  that  would  be   to  sort  out   in  courtÿ   Mr.  Goodman
incidentally mentions Wurlitzer as if it were still a live firm.
It  has died, a  lean  and meager ghost  of  its former self,  in
Texas, of  all places, going bankrupt there.  Steinway bought the
name, but nothing else, I think.  In  like fashion Don  Rand  did
buy the rights to the Clark name, if I remember correctly what he
told me.   And likewise, although the  BAB Organ Company physical
equipment went  to Senator Bovey and Ozzie Wurdeman, the right to
the  name  was purchased from Dominick Brugnolotti (who  was  the
last B in the BAB name) by Gavin McDonough, who conducts his band
organ business under that name.

A more complete but understandable account of copyright law as it
pertains to music can  be  had from  the  New Grove Dictionary of
American  Music,  under  the  rubric "Copyright."   If  any  list
recipient wants copies of any of the Copyright Office's brochures
on  any aspect of copyright, I  can  get them for  you, since the
Copyright Office is one floor below my office.