Re: [ARSCLIST] Copyright wrongs: we can't let the music industry suits stifle creativity

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeff Willens wrote:

>         Hope this doesn't sound TOO strange, but didn't Warner Bros. let several of their Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons lapse into public domain? And didn't they re-copyright them all in the 90s?  Notice how you don't see them on cheapo videotapes and DVDs anymore, or running on independent TV stations as they did in the 70s. I seem to remember at the end of the re-copyrighted versions (the ones on their new DVDs), there's a notice that says something like "Dubbed Version c. 1995 Warner Brothers". Would these just pertain to the films being remastered and the remaster itself being copyrighted?

Could this refer to a new audio mix? Seems to me that if a soundtrack is now in stereo, that would definitely constitute a new copyrightable element. (Speaking of which, MGM's "Band Wagon" sounds fantastic on the new DVD, and all the numbers are in well-balanced new stereo.)

dl