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 Posted: Tue Aug 15th, 2006 08:41 pm
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ThirdRatePoet
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Is 'Midnight Special' a public domain song? I see it's in the folk lyrics list, and most of Leadbelly's tunes became PD in 1998,

Dan :)



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 Posted: Tue Aug 15th, 2006 09:23 pm
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Hey Dan,

Midnight Special is public domain as far as I know, and not to open up a whole new can of worms, but nothing became public domain in the U.S. in 1998 (possibly in Europe though). I'm just going on my faulty memory here, but I think everything under copyright will remain that way until 2019. I'm not sure what happens then but I'll be too old to worry about it by then.

I'm not absolutely positive about Midnight Special being public domain because I don't actually have sheet music or a book with it in there before 1923, but it's listed in different places as being PD...

http://www.answers.com/topic/josh-at-midnight-ballads-and-blues

http://www.midnightspecial.org/chicago/c20030913.html

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000000EEG/103-6581736-6912631?v=glance&n=5174

:huh2:



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 Posted: Wed Aug 16th, 2006 09:54 pm
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Hi Richard

Cheers for the reply - I don't know where I got the 1998 idea from - I'm sure I've read this in a couple of places - maybe it is in Europe. I'll have to check it out a bit further.

Thanks for the links too - if I come up with anything useful I'll post it!

Dan :)



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 Posted: Wed Aug 16th, 2006 10:20 pm
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Copyright in the UK only extends to fifty years after the composers death - possibly that might what I was thinking of. Certainly Leadbelly recordings are PD in the UK (and possibly elsewhere in Europe).

Supposedly he learnt 'Midnight Special' from a fellow inmate whilst incarcerated in the early 1920's.



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