The Beatles - Bootleg Recordings 1963, NEW iTunes release 17. December 2013

They are all circulating unofficially anyway. If Apple doesn't give them an 'official' release before 50 years is up, anyone can then issue the recordings (from the circulating copies). This will stop lots of Public Domain labels releasing the material.

 

Despite the ongoing deliberate misuse of the word by copyright nannies, it's not theft if the owner still has it. No one stole the tapes, they copied them.

Good luck proving in court that the person who has a tape is the one who originally copied it, and if simply possessing copies of recordings that someone else copied without authorization a long time ago was a crime, a whole lot of us are in big trouble.

Once the recordings go public domain, Apple has no standing to demand anyone not do anything. The recordings are then owned by the public, and any member of the public can do with them as they see fit.

 

IF, they pay the appropriate royalties. Ron

 

How about releasing all of the hundreds of hours of Beatles recordings from the Abbey Road multitracks, reel by reel?

 

You can have too much of a good thing. 99% is unlistenable garbage that would ruin their reputation.

 

In that case, Apple is free to send copies of all those session reels just to me. I promise I will still have high regard for the band.

 

That is the correct question.
And the answer is yes.

 

I see this as a streaming/ interactive thing rather than a series of marketable items.
An on line aural Beatles museum

 

If it is in a High-Res format, then I will gladly pay the admission price.

 

Apparently these days there's nothing on iTunes anywhere in the world except Beyoncé's new album.

 

There doesn't need to be. See: Beyonce

 

I was just wondering why they didn't do this LAST year. It's correct, is it not, that all of the Decca tapes that weren't on Anthology 1 are now public domain? And the 1962 Cavern rehearsals?

I guess we'll finally get the full Esher Demos tape in 2018....

 

A very good question that I have asked as well. I can't think of a good answer - it simply wasn't on their radar?

The remaining Decca songs are in the public domain unless Circuit Records, The Estate of Joe Pope or "The San Juan Music Group" would like to step forward and lay claim to their 1970's "copyrights"

 

Perhaps they were expecting a different ruling regarding the revised copyright laws? MANY reports said recordings would be extended and protected for 70 years... at the time, there was no special proviso regarding previously unreleased material. Another possibility is the shakeup at EMI, with Universal taking over, put many things on the back burner. Ron

 

But the result is that all the Decca tracks not on A1 are public domain, right?

 

Is this gonna be released worldwide? or only in certain countries?

 

Yes. ANY recording released before 12.31.62 is now in the public domain. The new law has no effect on these recordings. ANY unreleased songs recorded before 12.31.63 (though the law seemingly has a Nov. 1 1963 cutoff) will enter the public domain at the end of this month. So, the 10 still-unreleased Decca tracks are in the PD. The Quarreymen Tapes, not on Anthology 1, are also PD. Same with the 1962 Cavern Rehearsals and the the two BBC broadcasts with Pete Best. Ron

PS Love Me Do (Ringo version) and PS I Love You are also PD now.

 

Yes. They are all on the "I Saw Here Standing There" release that came out early this year. Just the tracks that weren't on A1.

 

If these unreleased songs are available on December 17th as a iTunes Radio station (streaming) and not available for sale, do they comply with the copyright law extension?

 

Yes, the Paul version goes PD in 2059.

 

just wondered if something is pd and a company does not have the tapes and wants to release it they can't right? they can't demand a company who has the tapes to give them the tapes so they can release something ?

 

No, if they don't have the tapes, they have to needle drop it, I think.

 

Have there been any pd releases of the Decca audition?

 

so the company still has all the power ! Pd is not all that's cracked up to be. they need to change it ! 50 years is too long it needs to go to 25 years and once it is PD the tapes have to go to a big vault that can then be accessed by the company's who want to release it.

 

It's certainly not the horror story for EMI that some would make it out to be. They still own and control the master tapes.

However, if it ever got to the point where Please Please Me and Meet the Beatles fell into the public domain, I can see how hi-res needle drops of mint copies of original Parlophone pressings would appeal to the mindset of this forum as much as or more than EMI's official digitally tweaked masterings.