Re: Beatles unauthorized releases

On Thu, 16 Mar 2000, Mike Phillips <mfslaw[_at_]mailandnews.com> wrote:
>
> 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.

You might check out the Australian Federal Court decision from around 1988 re: the "Apple House" recordings (I believe the applicant was the Rolling Stones). The case has a fully reasoned decision which is a good guide to common law countries which use the UK laws as the copyright basis. The case revolved around the sale of CDs of bootleg recordings (high quality ones, usually taken off the mixing desks) which were sold as "unauthorised". The applicants failed on copyright and trademark and passing off. Strike three and goodnight.

Much depends upon whether the particular recording was made "unlawfully" in the context of the relevant copyright act. In the absence of any copyright or proprietary rights being granted to a performance (sorry for the apparent oxymoron, but it seems to be the only way to describe the legislative thinking), the fact that a recording was made without the artist's or the record company's consent, is immaterial.

CS

"Galvanising Ideas"

Colin Seeger, Consultant, Management of Intellectual Property. P.O Box 3227, Tamarama, Sydney, Australia 2026 Tel: (61) (02) 9365 1186, Fax (61) (02) 9365 1286 <seeger[_at_]ozemail.com.au> Received on Fri Mar 17 2000 - 13:50:58 GMT