Re: Old Time Radio and Copyright

On Mon, 27 Jul 1998, Joseph C. McGuire <joseph[_at_]sos.net> wrote:
>
> This is something I have always wondered about. Is old time radio
> copyrighted?
>
> Two things lead me to believe that is is not. 1) They were originally
> broacast live, therefore no fixation. 2) There was no phonocopyright
> under the 1909 act. So that the electrical transcription disks were not
> protected.
>
> Please correct me if I am wrong.

According to the owner of one of the large Old Time Radio syndication/cassette companies (Carl Amari of Radio Spirits and _When Radio Was_), the answer is "Often." His argument goes something like this: Some works were copyrighted as scripts and are protected if those copyrights were renewed. If they were not renewed, then the OTR broadcasts are public domain. If the original _scripts_ were _not_ copyrighted, then the scripts are protected as unpublished works and any unauthorized use of the recordings amounts to infringement of the scripts. This is actually quite similar to the protection of an otherwise PD derivative work through the still-valid copyright of the original work. Amari indicated that he had a solid legal basis for his opinion, but I don't know the particulars. If he's right, most OTR broadcasts are protected, since few of them were copyrighted in script form.

Pat Adkins
<treasure.mountain[_at_]mail.sstar.com> Received on Wed Jul 29 1998 - 01:42:14 GMT