Out of copyright - blessing or curse?

[mathias broucek]

The 50 year rule is now up to 1962 and there's been an explosion of cheap MP3 releases of early stereo (and earlier, of course) material at low prices.

Some of these releases are very well handled. For example I would suggest that http://www.naxos.com/labels/naxos_cl...l_archives.htm is both fairly cheap and very cheerful and http://www.classicalmusicmobile.com/ is extremely cheap and has decent sound albeit with no track separation.

However there's also some material out there which is badly transferred from LPs in poor condition and if one searches for MP3s of material by musicians who were active in the 50s and 60s one ends up with lots of dross amongst the gold.

So, do we think out-of-copyright is net useful?

And I have two specific asides:

Does anyone know when 50 years becomes 70 and whether this will be retrospective?

Has anyone downloaded from the Hallmark label which uses original artwork? http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_...rnid=387643011

[salymap]

I read about the 70 or 75 year move ages ago and thought it must have already happened.

I no longer have anything to do with new music or copyright but it was often a loss to the publisher in my working life. No downloads then.

[PJPJ]

......However there's also some material out there which is badly transferred from LPs in poor condition and if one searches for MP3s of material by musicians who were active in the 50s and 60s one ends up with lots of dross amongst the gold.

Equally poor transfers are available on CD, too.

For example:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Mar04/tristan_MB.htm

Naxos Archive is about the only mp3 I've bought in any quantity. At £1.99 per release (usually following the original LP content) and many the excellent work of Lani Spahr, these seem to me something of a bargain.

The change in copyright will not become retrospective. 1962 recordings are out of copyright in 2012, but 1963 recordings will now wait until 2033.

[mathias broucek]

Equally poor transfers are available on CD, too.

....

The change in copyright will not become retrospective. 1962 recordings are out of copyright in 2012, but 1963 recordings will now wait until 2033.

Thanks for the answer on 50/70 years.

On the Regis, they seem to have made a very abrupt switch from licensing some good but not widely available material (e.g. baroque oboe concertos with Sarah Francis, some interesting Richter material) to issuing poorly transfered LP transcriptions. I purchased one of their LP transcriptions and wasn't impressed....

[Dave2002]

I'm tempted to think it'll only have an effect on law abiding people. The bit torrent downloaders et al. will put the proverbial due digits up, and carry on as before.