Music copyright query

[lethargic_man]

Here's a question I suspect my reading list might not know the answer to, but might know someone who does; so please point your friends to it if you think they could help. (I'm thinking particularly of ewtikins, who's a music person, and livredor, who knows lots of people.)

It's well known (as in: all over Wikipedia and elsewhere on the Web) that copyright on sound recordings in UK law currently lasts fifty years—a fact that's caused record companies nervousness as the back catalogue of acts like the Beatles draws towards the end of its term, and that has caused artistes like Sir Cliff Richard and Dame Vera Lynn, whose early hits are now out of copyright, to campaign for a change to the law.

My question is: what is the status of old music reissued on CD, such as this one I have here of music recorded between 1937 and 1947? The CD is labelled ℗ 2004 (and © 2004). This article suggests digital remastering "establishes a new term of property right", but there's nothing on the CD's packaging (or on the record label's website) to indicate that it's been remastered. (Indeed, both the CD and its cover are plastered with "MONO" labels to make sure no one buys it under false expectations.)

Moreover, record companies are known for trying to enforce their rights beyond the limit of the law, trying to assert that promo records issued by them remain their property and cannot be sold on secondhand, a claim the EFF say is against USAn law. (And indeed in this country, it has not stopped, for instance, the BBC World Service from holding a yearly discarded stock sale, featuring numerous promo CDs.)

So, then, my question is whether the copyright marks on this CD hold weight, or are a result of the record company effectively trying to do a rights landgrab; or to put in in words or two syllables or less, can I copy this CD?

Comments

[miss-whiplash.livejournal.com]

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/protect/p07_music_copyright and other pages on that site might be useful.

As I understand it you can make duplicates for your own personal use but not pass them on (you have bought a copy and can only listen to one copy at once). This allows for example for keeping computer backups of CDs used in the car against theft of the original.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

That's for works which are unequivocally in copyright now. I'm asking about something which is not unequivocally in copyright, viz. the CD label claims a fresh copyright, but does not state any reason why it should be freshly copyrighted, as it's not a new recording, just a rerelease of an old one.

[miss-whiplash.livejournal.com]

At the foot of http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/uk_law_summary it reads "Rights do not subsist in any part of a work which is a copy taken from a previous work."