Re: Old Time Radio and Copyright

Pat Adkins <treasure.mountain[_at_]mail.sstar.com> wrote:
>
> 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 _not_ copyrighted, then the scripts are protected as unpublished works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.

I can see that the recording could be derivative work of a script. Should we ignore the timing. Script written, script broadcast and as the script is being broacast it is being recorded. When did the script get copyrighted? Did it have a copyright afixed to it?

How can a live broadcast recording be considered unpublished? Under todays law it would copyrighted immediatly. Under the 1909 it had to be registered if published. Isn't broadcasting publishing?

Joseph

Joseph C. McGuire
<joseph[_at_]sos.net> Received on Thu Jul 30 1998 - 02:42:49 GMT