kenny wrote:
I have a double-cassette tape set of recordings made in Co. Clare and Co. Kerry by Ciaran MacMathuna "as far back as 1955". The 5th track on "Music From Kerry" is "How to make a bodhran" by Jack Duggan. No indication when exactly the recording was made, but it may well pre-date O'Riada's "introduction of the bodhran". Might "legal action" follow, if I put it up on "Youtube", do you think ?
The legal action would consist of nothing more than having it taken down, most likely. In the US I believe someone would have had to file a copyright claim. It seems entirely reasonable to me to just put it up. We shouldn't allow the past to be "enclosed."
For example, I recently found a photo of Frances O'Neill's house in Chicago, taken in 1964. Handwritten on the back was a message saying the Chicago Historical Society could not release the photo as specified in correspondence with "X." X died in 2007, and left no heirs, and the correspondence mentioned can't be located, but the Chicago Historical Archive is simply assuming it's under copyright, and in the US, copyright extends to
seventy years beyond the death of the owner. So no one will be able to reproduce this photo until 2077. It's a good example of the mindlessness of copyright law: there is no one who benefits from the restriction; there's no owner whose rights are being protected; there's not even any record of an actual copyright claim, but it can't be used. The house itself no longer exists.
So I'd say why NOT put it up?