Re: [ARSCLIST] The Incompetence at ENHS

[Michael Shoshani <mshoshani@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Richter wrote:
> Writing as one who is not an attorney, I understand that the ENHS
> recordings belong to the National Park Service. As far as I can
> determine, the Park Service has never attempted to enforce the copyright
> inherent in that ownership. However, the presumably have the right to do
> so when/if they wish.

Well, it's more tangled than that, isn't it?  So far as my (admittedly
limited) understanding is, prior to 1972 there was no Federal copyright
in sound recordings - only States rights laws, which of course varied
with jurisdiction.  Were we to be discussing print media, the only
question that would be coming up regarding works copyrighted from 1923
onward, is whether the copyright was renewed correctly at the end of its
term. If it was, that copyright was extended with the Bono act. If it
was not, it fell into public domain ages ago.

Sound recordings are a royal pain in the nethers because, as James Wolf
points out, the LC is bound to observe the strictest interpretation of
the various state laws, of which New York's is apparently the strictest.
My own question is whether a court decision from the State of New York
should be applied outside that state's jurisdiction, i.e. in Washington,
DC. Since we have already seen the courts consider US laws to be broken
by foreigners in their own country when their actions enable US citizens
to break US law (I am specifically thinking of the Dmitriy Sklyarov case
in which a Russian citizen selling a 'crack' for eBook protection in
Russia to a clientele that included US purchasers was arrested on US
soil while speaking at a computer conference several years ago), my
guess is that yes, someone serving historic acoustic recordings on a web
server outside New York may sooner or later find himself or herself in
trouble with that state, for no other reason than the fact that
residents of New York state would have access to the material - thus the
site operator would be breaking the law because he or she would be
"doing business" in that state. But as I am not a lawyer, this is all
uninformed (and possibly misinformed) conjecture.

I'm wondering if we will ever get the legal situation straightened out
to the point where we can legally have a US version of Canada's Virtual
Gramophone.

Michael Shoshani
Chicago