More on Pujol from Jazzwax

[Dub Modal]

16 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Wrong. When the EU copyright laws were revised in 2012 to extend the copyright period to 70 years instead of 50 one key element of the new copyright law was that this extension did NOT apply retroactively. I.e. whatever had exceeded the 50-year copyright period by the effective date of this new EU law in 2012 and was in the P.D. then (i.e. everything prior to that same day in 1962) was going to REMAIN in the public domain.
(No, can't be bothered to search online for links to the relevant legal texts but they are out there on the EU websites, e.g. EurLex).

Interesting to re-see this thread after all these years. I did not even remember I had let myself get THAT involved in all that. I must have calmed down some since ... but basically IMO it's still this (in line with some of the points raised by David Ayers): Feel free to blast Pujol but as long as his reissues are recordings prior to that date in 1962 (or as long as he DID acquire the rights to recordings past that cutoff date) they are legal by the laws of HIS country. If you don't like that and blame those who sell them outside the applicability of the EU copyright laws, OK - so tell DG, for example, to remove them from their offerings (or else ... ), but OTOH, don't be hypocritical enough either to (for example) buy Japanese reissues that state explicitly on their packagings "Not for sale outside of Japan" (such as the run done by or for Solid Records a couple of years ago).

 

Who distributes these products to US markets and do individual retailers such as DG have the ability or leverage to tell their distributors not to include certain labels?

If retailers have that ability but subsequently don’t restrict them, are the margins on these products so advantageous that retailers would have a hard time not offering them? 
 

[David Ayers]

If anyone wants to go down the rabbit-hole of the history of the 28-year copyright in pre-1972 sound recordings (I don’t!) here is a place to start with useful summary and links:

 

https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2019/02/copyright-breakdown-the-music-modernization-act/