The US Copyright Office recently released a report recommending that Congress enact legislation to extend federal copyright protection to sound recordings made before February 15, 1972. The US Copyright Office engaged with various stakeholders to arrive at this recommendation and proposes special provisions to deal with issues that include:

Sound recordings made before February 15, 1972 are currently protected by state law through February 15, 2067, when they will enter the public domain. However, the scope of state protection is inconsistent and unclear.

The proposed legislation bringing pre-1972 sound recordings into the federal copyright system would give these works copyright protection for 95 years from the date of publication, or 120 years from the date of fixation if the work is not published before the legislation's effective date. However, no copyright protection for these recordings would continue past the current February 15, 2067 cutoff date.

Prospective rights holders whose copyrights would expire before the cutoff date could obtain extended protection by making their pre-1972 recordings available to the public at a reasonable price and notifying the Copyright Office of their intention to obtain extended protection.

The announcement of this report can be found on the Copyright Office's website.

For more information on federal copyright protection, see Practice Note, Copyright: Overview.