New York Court Reestablishes Common Law Copyright

This story has been reported, but hasn't received as much "play" as I thought it would. Perhaps people are waiting for the "other shoe to drop" or for someone to clear up with that really means.

The BBC News wrote:

A major change to US music copyright practices could be in the offing after a court ruled a record label broke the law by reissuing old recordings.

New York's highest court said Naxos was wrong to release classical recordings by Yehudi Menuhin and others - even though they were out of copyright.

The court said such recordings were still covered by common law.

For more information, see:

• John Caher. N.Y. High Court Expands Copyright Protection for Recordings. Law.com. April 6, 2005.
• Michael Gormley. Court Rules Common Law Protects Recordings. SFGate.com. April 5, 2005.

Will this impact a digitization project? Perhaps...we'll have to wait to see how people (attorneys) analyze this. The article does note that it will affect the recording industry, although who knows how big the impact will really be.

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Thanks to SNT Report for their reporting of this (with the resource list).