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Christmas Carols and the Public Domain
Posted by Ernest Miller on Monday, December 09 @ 09:04:22 EST Copyright
Music is an important part of the holiday season. Has been for centuries. So, while you listen to holiday music this year (whether at the mall or in the comfort of your home with family), consider the importance of the public domain. LawMeme has a survey listing twelve of the most popular Christmas carols and their copyright status. The survey is in the right hand column on the front page, or click here to vote and click here to see the results.
 
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"User Login" | Login/Create an Account | 4 comments | Search Discussion
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Re: Christmas Carols and the Public Domain (Score: 1, Informative)
by Anonymous on Monday, December 09 @ 09:51:40 EST
The words to "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" have gone through many revisions from Wesley's original version until now. Back when Wesley first published, copyright only covered the book-as-published, so anyone could take an individual lyric from a published book, modify it, and reprint it. They could, and they did, and the result is that our modern HTHAS is a work of cumulative authorship:


http://www.law.asu.edu/HomePages/Karjala/OpposingCopyrightExtension/publicdomain/PhillipsCumAuthorshipChart.html [www.law.asu.edu]


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Re: Christmas Carols and the Public Domain (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, December 09 @ 22:57:25 EST
What, no Good King Wenceslas [www.always-safe.com]!?

What's up with that?


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Re: Christmas Carols and the Public Domain (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, December 09 @ 22:58:17 EST
What, no Good King Wenceslas [www.always-safe.com]!?

What's up with that?


[ Reply to This ]

Re: Christmas Carols and the Public Domain (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 11 @ 10:09:00 EST
An article by Thomas Dimopoulos of the Saratoga Springs (New York) Saratogian, about a benefit CD which includes many PD Christmas songs.

http://www.saratogian.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1169&dept_id=17776&newsid=6215798&PAG=461&rfi=9

From the article:

Area musician Susan Hamlin explains how the process came about. ''There was a list of suggested titles from which you could choose a song to record,'' Hamlin says. The list of songs included tunes in the ''public domain'' -- that is without copyright attachment -- that were readily available for use and release. It also ensures more money from sales of the CD goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

One error (not necessarily the journalist's): There is no such carol as "God rest ye merry gentlemen". The correct wording is "God rest you merry, gentlemen. Note the comma after "merry".


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