Copyright Aid

There's a 5-second sample of a song recorded in 1914 that I want to use in my own music. My understanding of copyright for this sort of thing is that it expires 70 years after the death of the composer? Do you know if this is correct?

Hi Eddie,

Yes, the basic rule is that copyright lasts for the lifetime of the composer/songwriter plus 70 years from the end of the year they died. So it is perfectly possible that a song from 1914 is still protected by copyright. However, prior to 1976 the USA had a very different system which required a work to be registered in order to gain copyright, and so if this song was written by an American and first published there, it would no longer be protected because under their old system the copyright term was a maximum of 56 years from the date of publication.

I hope this answers your question.

Yes it does, many thanks Andy