# If Robert Johnson Died In 1938... Why Is His Music Still Covered By Copyright?



## RootbeaR (Dec 9, 2006)

There are two worthwhile points to discuss in the post. The first concerns how many jazz and blues musicians view copyright law:


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## ozziebeanie (Jun 24, 2009)

Who ever inherited his estate will now own those rights, or if he sold them, then it is who ever owns them will now own them.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

But essentially, this case says that a song never exists until it is written down and published by a musician or music company. It could be played for hundreds of years, but...and the copyright would not belong to those holding what remains of Johnson's estate (or music rights), but to whomever published the song.
Maybe I should go out and find a bunch of classic jazz and blues songs that have never been published, do just that and then sue everyone who has played them in public or put them on a CD!


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## ozziebeanie (Jun 24, 2009)

Who ever paid for the rights and who ever now owns those rights will be making the money on it. It may not be the publisher, writer or the singer, it could be the bloke next door Joe blogs that has brought them, and he may not a publisher, writer or singer.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

I just found the text of the case:
http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/217/217.F3d.684.98-56145.html
Essentially, one record company had albums issued with recordings of the song in 1969 and 1972. Another company went in 1974 and tracked down Johnson's only remaining relative and paid her for the rights to the music and then released a compilation of Johnson's songs.
The first company sued, and the court ruled that Johnson had never filed for a copyright and such rights as he did have expired after 28 years, so the first company owns the song, despite not having paid for the rights, etc. for they had fallen into the public domain - until the record came out in 1969.
Bizarre....


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## ozziebeanie (Jun 24, 2009)

Bizarre alright, those companies know all the tricks to making money for no cost or little cost, dont they


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

And then they invent DRM, just to annoy us....


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## RootbeaR (Dec 9, 2006)

slurpee55 said:


> And then they invent DRM, just to annoy us....


Briefly...I have to fire up a MS DRM encumbered OS just to see if something has it anymore.


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## slurpee55 (Oct 20, 2004)

RootbeaR said:


> Briefly...I have to fire up a MS DRM encumbered OS just to see if something has it anymore.


"Empowered by Linux" - yeah, yeah.... :up: 

Personally, I just haven't made that leap, is all. And I have something like 4 older PCs sitting in my office, all of which could run Ubuntu (or another distro) easily. Call me old-fashioned; no, I'm old, just call me that.


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