FW: Mandelstam Rights/Estate

[Brewer, Michael]

Forwarded for Janice Pilch:

Replying on behalf of the AAASS Subcommittee on Copyright Issues, I will add that copyright terms, beyond the minimum term set in the Berne Convention, are very complicated. They vary from country to country, and from work to work, even of a single author.

Copyright in works of Mandelshtam are also complex in that he was rehabilitated at least twice, in 1956 and 1987. In the Russian Federation, works of posthumously rehabilitated authors are now protected for 70 years from rehabilitation. Also, even if there are no surviving members of the family, or an estate, to protect the rights, the Russian government assumes the role of the estate in protecting existing copyrights.

The copyright term in the U.S. is based on when and where a work was first published, or on the author’s year of death, depending on the circumstances of creation and publication of the work. There is no single answer as to a copyright term-—many factors need to be considered, on a case by case basis, for each work in question. 

More would need to be known about the 1925 recording in order to determine with certainty its copyright status within the U.S. and in other countries. Because the digitizing is being done in the U.S. this is the place to start. It requires copyright determinations on each work recorded, as well as in the sound recording as a whole. How many separate works are included in the recording? Who held the initial copyrights in those works? Was this the first recording of each work? When was each work first published, and where? Where was the recording made? And more. Beyond this it is necessary, but probably not possible, to determine whether the recording as a whole was considered “published” at the time it was created. It’s a real mess.

In the U.S. sound recordings created before February 15, 1972 are not protected by federal copyright law, but by common law copyright (state laws). The earliest that copyright protection will expire for pre-1972 sound recording in the U.S. is 2067, when the federal statute takes effect on all sound recordings. The 1925 recording in question may be covered under this patchwork system, but to know for sure would probably require the expert skill of an attorney and many hours of his/her time to sort out the issues. It is very complicated.

This is probably not what anyone envisaged in making the decision to digitize this recording. 

So, given that the recording “might” be protected today in the U.S. or in Russia or another country, your options are to digitize anyway, and run the risk of being discovered if the recording is in fact copyrighted; digitize anyway and minimize risk by not making the recording publicly available; or not digitize. 

Hopefully this information will be helpful to you. I must add the customary disclaimer that the above information reflects my own opinion and expertise and is not associated with policies, opinions, or views of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, or of AAASS. It is not offered as legal advice and should not be interpreted as legally binding, but is offered as friendly commentary.

Sincerely,

Janice Pilch
Chair, AAASS Bibliography and Documentation Subcommittee on Copyright Issues


-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Anyse Joslin
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 11:35 PM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Mandelstam Rights/Estate

The basic law of copyright is now that an estate can hold all rights  
for only 50 years after the death of the original artist. After that,  
it is all in the public domain.

Anyse

On Dec 2, 2008, at 8:36 PM, Kevin M. F. Platt wrote:

Dear Colleagues:

A contact is digitizing (for web-distribution) a recording of  
Mandelstam made in 1925, and asks me if I know what the status of the  
poet's estate is--is there an executor/foundation/entity that would  
hold the rights, or would this be public domain?

Cheers,

kp

Associate Professor Kevin M. F. Platt
Chair, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
745 Williams Hall
255 S. 36th Street
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

kmfplatt at sas.upenn.edu
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/slavic

Tel: 215-746-0173
Fax: 215-573-7794




----------------------------------------
Janice T. Pilch
Head of Slavic and East European Acquisitions
Associate Professor of Library Administration
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801  
Tel (217) 244-9399
Fax (217) 333-2214

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