Beatles unauthorized releases

This issue was kicked around quite a bit in a Usenet group, but a definitive answer was never reached. There are many, many
"unauthorized" releases of recording sessions of The Beatles (and
many, many other groups) in circulation. As the tapes were never officially published by the copyright owner, and as the tapes were recorded in the UK, is it a violation of copyright law to copy the tapes in the United States. I've always considered selling these unauthorized releases to be counter to the owner's rights, but when challenged on the assertion, I was unable to quote chapter and verse.

Then the discussion degenerated to whether it is illegal to make a copy in the United States of music released in the United States to
"trade" with another person.

Comments?

Mike Phillips
<mfslaw[_at_]mailandnews.com> Received on Thu Mar 16 2000 - 15:31:00 GMT