Bob Dylan releases "“The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol 1”.

Bob-Dubery

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/bob-dylan-releases-just-100-copies-of-the-50th-anniversary-collected-boxset-to-exploit-copyright-loophole-8444928.html

Executive summary: Dylan and/or his lawyers have released a box set of recordings that were about to fall into the public domain. In EU law recordings that are more than 50 years old and have never been commercially released fall into the public domain. This way Dylan can protect those tracks so that he can use them in some later release.

Jack-Flash-Jr

Thumbs up for living artists.
Artists dead for almost 50 years whose copyright (song not recording) resides with record companies? Not so sure.
Aren't books released to public domain 50 years after the author's death? Or is it publication date?

Bob-Dubery

I think it varies across jurisdictions. AIUI this 100-only box set is for the EU only, so the laws elsewhere may be different.

Contracts may also override default situations. I remember reading one story about a band (not sure, think it was X) whose contract with their then label said that if the label didn't use the master tapes for 20 years then ownership of the tapes reverts to the bands. So every 19 years and 350 odd days the label has to be sure to get a song used in a movie or included in some compilation or something.

Which leads me to conclude that the reason for some of these seemingly pointless compilations one sees might just be to satisfy "use it or lose it" clauses in contracts.

Bob-Dubery

Jack Flash Jr wrote Thumbs up for living artists.
Artists dead for almost 50 years whose copyright (song not recording) resides with record companies? Not so sure.
Aren't books released to public domain 50 years after the author's death? Or is it publication date?

The provision being addressed here is that if you record it and don't release it commercially THEN it becomes public domain 50 years after recording. In the EU.

Eventually Cheryl Crow's first album will become available. In the EU.