HopefulUncategorized

The New York Times reports today an amazing preservation story:

For decades jazz cognoscenti have talked reverently of “the Savory Collection.” Recorded from radio broadcasts in the late 1930s by an audio engineer named William Savory, it was known to include extended live performances by some of the most honored names in jazz – but only a handful of people had ever heard even the smallest fraction of that music, adding to its mystique. After 70 years that wait has now ended. This year the National Jazz Museum in Harlem acquired the entire set of nearly 1,000 discs, made at the height of the swing era, and has begun digitizing recordings of inspired performances by Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan, Harry James and others that had been thought to be lost forever. Some of these remarkable long-form performances simply could not be captured by the standard recording technology of the time.

But this wonderful story is about to meet the Reagan-DLC era, where America is now run for the benefit for the wealthy and their corporations. As everyone knows, year after year measures to help ordinary people face filibusters and procedural roadblocks. Meanwhile, pro-corporate policies can pass through without even a recorded vote. A good example of the deregulatory frenzy of the Clinton era was 1998’s Copyrigt Term Extension Act. Why did I think of it today? Back to the article:

Mr. Schoenberg said the museum planned to make as much as possible of the Savory collection publicly available at the museum and eventually online. But the copyright status of the recorded material is complicated, which could inhibit plans to share the music. While the museum has title to Mr. Savory’s discs as physical objects, it does not possess rights to the music on the discs.

Now, everyone recording in 1935 thought copyright would run out by 2010 and were paid accordingly, though as the article remarks, no one imagined these recordings had any long-term value. Copyrights from 1940, the last year of the trove, should run out in 2015. (Or fifty years after the death of the artists, admittedly a more complicated situation.) The complicated ownership situation is precisely because virtually everyone involved is dead, but of course the greed of the corporations and their complient 105th Congress have created a mess rather than the simple situation earlier generations enjoyed. I don’t have any objection to paying for music, but I do object to it being suppressed.

The Copyright Extension Act of 1998 was signed by President Bill Clinton, and passed by voice votes without objection in both Houses. (Unanimous consent for Disney, filibuster for patients.) Therefore many responsible for this mess are still around. If any of them opposed it, they didn’t even bother making the vote be recorded. A giveaway of public rights to private corporations wasn’t even considered. Frank Lautenberg, Rob Andrews, Frank LoBiondo, Chris Smith, Frank Pallone, Bill Pascrell, Steve Rothman, Donald Payne, Rodney Frelinghuysen, and Bob Menendez were all in Congress then.

Around 2015, we can expect a new copyright act. Let’s hope Democrats stand up for the public next time.