Electronic Frontier Foundation: Another court has ruled that the public still has the ability to play old music that almost everyone believed they lawfully had the ability to play. The Florida Supreme Court, following in the footsteps of New York State’s high court, ruled yesterday that its state law, which governs sound recordings made before 1972, doesn’t include a right to control public performances of sound recordings, including radio play. Both this decision and the reasoning behind it are good news for digital music companies and radio listeners.
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This is a great win for consumers and fans of music from pre-1972. There is nothing special about that music, just that there were no Federal Laws on the books covering the copyright of those songs. Music is music and it should be treated the same regardless of when it was produced. Songwriters and producers of music pre-1972 should not be entitled to royalties that post-1972 songwriters and producers are not getting. This is a great example of the judiciary stepping in to clarify a void in existing laws to ensure equitable and fair treatment of all potentially copyrighted products.
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