4 ms·

This is a little strange... the notice on his website says "November 1, 2022", but here's an article (and discussion) from two years ago stating the same thing:

This is a little strange... the notice on his website says "November 1, 2022", but here's an article (and discussion) from two years ago stating the same thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24833683 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24833683

lproven 4y ago
AIUI, 2Y ago he gave away the lyrics. The snag is that some of his songs are set to others' melodies, for instance, Gilbert & Sullivan provided the melody for "the Elements". Now, he is adding the melodies and other rights which he owns.
skissane 4y ago
His Wikipedia article says: > In 2020, at the age of 92, Lehrer donated all of his lyrics and music written by him to the public domain.[60][61] He followed this on November 1, 2022 with all recording and performing rights of any kind, making all of his music that he has originally composed or performed free for anyone to use.[62] That makes sense. Legally, a recording of a particular performance of a musical work, is a separate copyright from the underlying musical work. Releasing the later into the public domain did not release the former into the public domain, which is why he had to do it separately. Why did 2 years pass between one and the other? Maybe he just didn't fully understand all the legal details involved at first. Or maybe there was some contractual issue (with record labels/etc) he had to sort out, and that blocked putting the recordings into the public domain but not the music/lyrics
- joe5150 4y ago
  The note on the website doesn't mention recordings, and I don't think Tom Lehrer necessarily owns the copyright to any given recording that he could commit to the public domain. Also "committing to the public domain" is an idea with various interpretations and legal implications, particularly in an international context. That's why things like CC0 exist, which essentially grant a "license" to works that is as near as possible to being free of copyright even in jurisdictions where there's no legal way to surrender your copyright. I think this update is more of a clarification on those terms rather than a substantial change to the copyright situation of Lehrer's lyrics and music.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - tingletech 4y ago
    CC0 (like BSD/MIT) is basically a quit claim deed. The US has unilateral copyright assignment though. I always wondered why you could not just assign the copyright to the federal government. Work-for-hire by feds is public domain.
    - joe5150 4y ago
      I don't know if that would work; transferring a copyright to the US government is actually one of the only ways the government gets to own a copyright.
    - skissane 4y ago
      > I always wondered why you could not just assign the copyright to the federal government Assigning work to the US federal government does not put it in the public domain. Work created by a US federal government employee, in the course of their official duties, automatically enters into the public domain in the United States (but not necessarily internationally.) However, if someone else creates a copyrighted work, and then assigns the copyright to the US federal government, as far as copyright law goes, the US federal government has the same ability to limit access to it (or charge for access) as any private copyright holder does.
      - ghaff 4y ago
        It's probably more accurate to say that, in contrast to everyone else in the country, most works created by the US federal government don't get copyrighted upon their creation (in the eyes of the US federal government). That effectively means they're what people describe as in the public domain in the US. But other countries may not recognize the right of the US government to create uncopyrighted works.
        skissane 4y ago
dang 4y ago
Oh well, it's at least an opportunity to talk about Tom Lehrer again. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=comments%3E0%20Tom%20Lehrer&sort=byDate&type=story&storyText=none https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=tom%20lehrer&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Somewhere in HN history there was an article about him where a guy convinced him to donate his master tapes to an archive. Lehrer had them in a basement somewhere and was just going to throw them out. He was surprised to hear that they were valuable at all. He seems to be one of those humans who gets more interesting the closer you look.
- tptacek 4y ago
  He claims to have invented the Jell-o shot while working at the NSA. I believe him.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  He's fantastic. The fact that his songs are just as funny and relevant today as when they were written is what impresses me the most. This is super hard to do with that kind of material.
  - MaxBarraclough 4y ago
    Some of Bob Newhart's material has aged similarly well. Wikipedia tells me they're just a few months apart in age, too.
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      Thank you, I did not know about him, I'll look into that.
- pdonis 4y ago
  In his biographical introduction of himself in the live version of Songs By Tom Lehrer, he says he is working on a musical based on the life of Adolf Hitler. If only he had beat Mel Brooks to that one...
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
krackers 4y ago
I think that one was only the lyrics/sheet music, while this is the actual recordings.

lproven 4y ago

AIUI, 2Y ago he gave away the lyrics. The snag is that some of his songs are set to others' melodies, for instance, Gilbert & Sullivan provided the melody for "the Elements". Now, he is adding the melodies and other rights which he owns.

skissane 4y ago

His Wikipedia article says: > In 2020, at the age of 92, Lehrer donated all of his lyrics and music written by him to the public domain.[60][61] He followed this on November 1, 2022 with all recording and performing rights of any kind, making all of his music that he has originally composed or performed free for anyone to use.[62] That makes sense. Legally, a recording of a particular performance of a musical work, is a separate copyright from the underlying musical work. Releasing the later into the public domain did not release the former into the public domain, which is why he had to do it separately. Why did 2 years pass between one and the other? Maybe he just didn't fully understand all the legal details involved at first. Or maybe there was some contractual issue (with record labels/etc) he had to sort out, and that blocked putting the recordings into the public domain but not the music/lyrics

joe5150 4y ago
The note on the website doesn't mention recordings, and I don't think Tom Lehrer necessarily owns the copyright to any given recording that he could commit to the public domain. Also "committing to the public domain" is an idea with various interpretations and legal implications, particularly in an international context. That's why things like CC0 exist, which essentially grant a "license" to works that is as near as possible to being free of copyright even in jurisdictions where there's no legal way to surrender your copyright. I think this update is more of a clarification on those terms rather than a substantial change to the copyright situation of Lehrer's lyrics and music.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- tingletech 4y ago
  CC0 (like BSD/MIT) is basically a quit claim deed. The US has unilateral copyright assignment though. I always wondered why you could not just assign the copyright to the federal government. Work-for-hire by feds is public domain.
  - joe5150 4y ago
    I don't know if that would work; transferring a copyright to the US government is actually one of the only ways the government gets to own a copyright.
  - skissane 4y ago
    > I always wondered why you could not just assign the copyright to the federal government Assigning work to the US federal government does not put it in the public domain. Work created by a US federal government employee, in the course of their official duties, automatically enters into the public domain in the United States (but not necessarily internationally.) However, if someone else creates a copyrighted work, and then assigns the copyright to the US federal government, as far as copyright law goes, the US federal government has the same ability to limit access to it (or charge for access) as any private copyright holder does.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      It's probably more accurate to say that, in contrast to everyone else in the country, most works created by the US federal government don't get copyrighted upon their creation (in the eyes of the US federal government). That effectively means they're what people describe as in the public domain in the US. But other countries may not recognize the right of the US government to create uncopyrighted works.
      - skissane 4y ago

dang 4y ago

Oh well, it's at least an opportunity to talk about Tom Lehrer again. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=comments%3E0%20Tom%20Lehrer&sort=byDate&type=story&storyText=none https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=tom%20lehrer&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Somewhere in HN history there was an article about him where a guy convinced him to donate his master tapes to an archive. Lehrer had them in a basement somewhere and was just going to throw them out. He was surprised to hear that they were valuable at all. He seems to be one of those humans who gets more interesting the closer you look.

tptacek 4y ago
He claims to have invented the Jell-o shot while working at the NSA. I believe him.
jacquesm 4y ago
He's fantastic. The fact that his songs are just as funny and relevant today as when they were written is what impresses me the most. This is super hard to do with that kind of material.
- MaxBarraclough 4y ago
  Some of Bob Newhart's material has aged similarly well. Wikipedia tells me they're just a few months apart in age, too.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    Thank you, I did not know about him, I'll look into that.
pdonis 4y ago
In his biographical introduction of himself in the live version of Songs By Tom Lehrer, he says he is working on a musical based on the life of Adolf Hitler. If only he had beat Mel Brooks to that one...

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

krackers 4y ago

I think that one was only the lyrics/sheet music, while this is the actual recordings.