The turn of the year enters the public domain more than 400,000 pre-1923 audio recordings in the US, including classical musicians and pieces by Edison

If you like the music that made the United States vibrate a century ago, at the beginning of the 20th, you are in luck. Thanks to the Music Modernization Law, passed by the US Congress in 2018, an extensive list of more than 400,000 centennial recordings it has just passed into the public domain at the turn of the year. Among the audios that have seen their copyrights expire in the US are works by Scott Joplin or Adelina Patti. Also from Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the phonograph, which provides pieces of high value for historians.

The legislative change contemplates that they go into the public domain in the United States. hundreds of thousands of audios collected from the appearance of sound recording technology until 1922, which includes pieces by Mamie Smith, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice or Ethel Waters, among others. The legislative framework that protects it, HR 1551, or Music Modernization Law, was approved a little over three years ago, in October 2018, during the term of Donald Trump, and renewed some aspects of the country’s Copyright Law. Among the topics it addresses there is a wide range of issues such as music royalties in streaming to old recordings.

From Winnie the Pooh to Rodolfo Valentino

Works that enter the public domain in the United States, of course, do not have to do so in Spain as well. The Ministry of Culture and Sport specifies that “the general term” of the exploitation rights extends throughout the life of the author and an extra period of 70 years from your death. The Executive clarifies, in any case, that “there are other terms for moral rights and other benefits, as well as for works by authors who died before 1987.”

In the latter case – who died before December 1987 – rights are extended in Spain during the 80 years following the death of the author, which places the margin in 1942.

In the US, it’s not just pre-1923 music lovers that have received good news with New Year’s Eve grapes. works that have passed into the public domain with the change of year there are also the classic ‘Winnie the Pooh’, by AA Milne; and emblematic novels, such as ‘The Sun Also Rises’ -translated as ‘Fiesta’ in Spanish- by Ernest Hemingway, or ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’ (‘The murder of Roger Ackroyd’), by the queen of mystery, Agatha Christie .

The agency Associated Press cites other examples, like ‘Enought Rope’, the first collection of Dorothy Parker’s owned; ‘Soldiers’ Pay’, novel by William Faulkner; or books by Langston Hughes, Willa Cather and TE Lawrence. Perhaps the most popular of all the creations that are made public in the United States is perhaps the first story of ‘Winnie the Pooh’, by AA Milne, published in 1926 and around which it has been created. a great and profitable franchise throughout the last century. Disney preserves in any case the copyright of his animated adaptation.

There are also Hollywood legends who have seen their condition change with 2022. Those who like the immortal jewels of celluloid have seen films starring Buster Keaton, Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino Y Harold Lloyd.

By allowing the works to be legally shared, reused and displayed without permission or cost, the change has another consequence that directly benefits the pieces: facilitates its preservation. The long period of copyright in the US has resulted in the loss of creations that were not profitable for their owners to maintain. In fact, Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, alerted not long ago that “just because the 1926 works are legally available does not mean that they really are.”

“After 95 years, many of those works have already been lost or are literally disintegrating, as is the case with old films and recordings, which shows what the long terms of copyright do to the conservation of cultural artifacts “, Jenkins abounded in statements collected by la agencia Associated Press.

The 400,000 recordings and tapes and books of American classics are not the only ones that have passed into the public domain by the end of 2021. In Engadget we already published a list of classics that have also seen their situation change in a similar direction with the passage of 2021 to 2022.

Images Infrogmation of New Orleans (Flickr)