What do Woody Guthrie, Otis Redding, Judy Garland, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, John Coltrane, The Beatles, Janis Joplin, Ezio Pinza and Buddy Holly have in common? Not one of their original recordings is protected by federal copyright law. But last month, after a two-year study at the direction of Congress, the Register of Copyrights issued a comprehensive report1 recommending that the Copyright Law of the United States (the Copyright Act)2 be amended to provide federal copyright protection for pre-1972 sound recordings.

Until the effective date (Feb. 15, 1972) of the Sound Recording Act of 1971 (SRA), state law provided the only protection for sound recordings. The SRA provided federal copyright protection for sound recordings fixed after its effective date, but left pre-1972 recordings protected solely under state law. The report reviewed the ways in which sound recordings were protected under state laws, and concluded that the inconsistencies and unpredictability arising from a multitude of legal regimes disserved the interests of both users and right holders. However, most right holders, such as record companies and music publishers (groups normally favoring federal protection), favored “leaving well enough alone” due to their long-established contractual relations based on state law and the potentially longer periods of protection available for certain pre-1972 recordings under state law.

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