Fearing such hits as “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “National Brotherhood Week,” “The Masochism Tango,” “The Element Song,” “Be Prepared,” and “Lobachevsky”

I've finished another song for my game! This one is inspired by music from indigenous groups. Natalie has an indigenous background, so I wanted to create a fitting theme for her.

This is Natalie btw

Tom Lehrer's made his songs public domain.

Here's the archived version of the website since it's going to be deleted soon:

"https://web.archive.org/web/20221219154857/https://tomlehrersongs.com/"

And also I downloaded all the files from the site and uploaded them again here:

"https://archive.org/details/trotl2_202212"

Speaking of the US public domain, January 1st, 2024 is a big day for another reason.

To provide some brief historical context, for most of its history the US had no federal copyright regime for standalone audio recordings (i.e., as opposed to the audio component of movies and other multimedia productions), instead allowing the individual states to set their own standards. Many states elected to grant perpetual copyright on audio recordings, a state of affairs which was exploited by record companies to ensure that there was functionally no public domain for audio recordings in the US.

This changed in 1972, with the passage of laws that brought audio recordings in line with federal copyright standards. The changes did not apply retroactively, leaving audio recordings created prior to 1972 under the old state-level perpetual copyrights – and since the federal copyright duration in the US is so long, no post-1972 audio recording has been around long enough for its term to expire.

However, further changes to federal copyright law in 2018 allowed very old audio recordings to be placed in the public domain regardless of where they were produced. Initially, this applied only to audio recordings created in 1922 and earlier, which is why we've suddenly seen a bunch of indie productions making use of old dance-hall recordings in the past couple of years. Provisions to gradually phase out the copyright protection of recordings produced between 1922 and 1972 were also included – and those start kicking in next year, beginning with audio recordings created in 1923.

TL;DR: January 1st, 2024 will be the first time in history that any standalone audio recording has ever entered the US public domain through expiration of the term of its copyright.

If you live in the US and you're a fan of old music, it might be worth looking up what exactly came out in 1923!

A public domain Crazy Taxi-vibe track I’m using to replace a non-streaming-safe track in the Steam version of Crazy Taxi : )

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Hearse_Pileup/2020/were-all-going-to-hell/

Donna Schuster (American, 1883-1953): O’er Waiting Harp Strings (1921) (via Laguna Art Museum)

Just thinking about the genuine beauty of this movie.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reiniger (1926, Germany)

Musician Mickey

86/365 #hunt the mouse

I went ahead and did the music themed Mickey- the general idea was a composer Mickey Mouse with an synesthesia rainbow aesthetic which is sort of complimented with note beat ears and eyes.

I am making 365 new versions of Mickey Mouse for the public domain and releasing them under public domain all year long.

You can join the initiative to #hunt the mouse or suggest a theme yourself via my ask box.

Will never relate to people who get upset at game delays or the thought of there being less tv shows during a strike or a band not making enough music

HOW ARE YOU NOT CONSTANTLY OVWRWHRLMED BY THE VAST QUANTITIES OF MEDIA OUT THERE

How do you not have 3000 untouched games on steam. Youre caught up on every anime? ALL OF IT? ALL THE OBSCURE 80S OVAS??? GO WATCH SOME FRENCH FILMS!!! Go watch one of the trillions of youtube videos - you mean you havent seen 2527r8393.mp4 yet!?!?!? You have already listened to every song? You've heard every Finnish or Greek or Azerbaijani song ever made???? DOWNLOAD 8GB OF WEIRD WALKING SIMS AND VISUAL NOVELS OFF ITCH.IO!!!! GO TRAWL THROUGH ARCHIVE.ORG (IF ITS STILL AROUND)!!! DONT YOU ALSO HAVE 100 HALF-READ BOOKS AROUND!?!?!

If youre not hyperventalating at the thought youll never see every single cool thing in the world before you pass (like i constantly am) then you havent looked hard enough!!! What is it like to hear that a game you want to play has been delayed and NOT breathe a sigh of relief because you already have 5 unfinished games you started in the past year HOW!!!!!

I just composed some music that sounds like a drugged up cat made it and that's perfect since it's for a battle against a catgirl.

This is the catgirl btw. Her name is Katie! She likes video games and catnip.

She's planned to be the stage 3 boss battle.

I'm a bit late sharing this this year, but Happy Public Domain Day! Here is a list of some of the more notable works that are now public domain as of the first of this year.

I think it's a small testament to the importance of the public domain that not only did it allow Pizza Tower to sample this for their final boss theme, but it did so in a way that was thematically relevant to the character...

The Dance of Death at Basel; lithograph by Danzer (from Wellcome Collection)

"These lithographs are derived from the dance of death frescos painted on the walls of the churchyard of the Dominican cloister in Basel. Executed between 1437 and 1441, these frescos were often altered and were finally removed in 1805 when damages could not be restored. Some of the wall fragments are preserved in the history museum in Basel."

Text reads "Oh Mensch betracht und nicht veracht, hie die Figur, all Creatur. Die nimmt der Tod früh und spot, gleichwie die Blum im Feld zergoht," which I found translated in Issues of Death: Mortality and Identity in English Renaissance Tragedy by Michael Neill as "Behold, O people, and don't despise, the image of all human creatures whom Death seizes, sooner or later, like flowers in the meadow."

The reason why we're suddenly seeing a bunch of indie video games – particularly American indie video games – using vintage music is because the US finally has a public domain in sound recordings.

For context, until 1972, there was no federal copyright regime in the US for sound recordings; intellectual property law for sound recordings was devolved to the individual states, meaning there were fifty different sets of rules that might apply to any given recording, and some states allowed sound recordings to be protected for an indefinite term – i.e., in essence, perpetual copyright without expiration.

What changed in 1972 was the Sound Recording Amendment, which established unified federal copyright on sound recordings for the first time, but which allowed any pre-existing state-level copyrights for sound recordings published prior to February 15th, 1972 to run for their full term. Since most state-level sound recording copyrights had no fixed term (see above), this was capped at the "publication plus 95 years" rule which applies to other federal copyrights – with the twist that the 95-year cap on previously perpetual sound recording copyrights would count from 1972, not from the date of publication.

This effectively meant that no sound recordings in the US would enter the public domain until February 15th, 2067 – which doesn't do anyone a whole lot of good right now!

Fast forward to 2018, when another piece of federal legislation, the Music Modernisation Act, was passed. Though this act was mainly concerned with streaming royalties and such, it also contained provisions to grandfather certain sound recordings into the public domain earlier than the Sound Recording Amendment's all-or-nothing 2067 deadline. Specifically:

On January 1st, 2022, all sound recordings published before 1923 would enter the public domain

Sound recording published from 1923 through 1946 will enter the public domain 100 years after the date of first publication

Sound recordings published from 1947 through 1956 will enter the public domain 110 years after the date of first publication

In practice, what this means is:

All sound recordings first published before 1923 entered the public domain last year, on January 1st, 2022;

This year, 2023, is a "gap year" in which no sound recordings enter the public domain (i.e., being the 100th and final year of protection for sound recordings first published in 1923); and

On January 1st of next year – that is, January 1st of 2024 – new batches of sound recordings will begin to enter the US public domain on a yearly basis for the first time in history, starting with sound recordings first published in 1923.

A public domain Crazy Taxi-vibe track I’m using to replace a non-streaming-safe track in the Steam version of Crazy Taxi : )

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Defy_The_Mall/Defy_The_Mall/Defy_the_Mall_-_Defy_the_Mall_-_12_Coastin/

On January 1, 2024, thousands of copyrighted works from 1928 will enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1923. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. This year’s highlights include Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence and The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman and Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It, and a trove of sound recordings from 1923. And, of course, 2024 marks the long-awaited arrival of Steamboat Willie – featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse – into the public domain. That story is so fascinating, so rich in irony, so rife with misinformation about what you will be able to do with Mickey and Minnie now that they are in the public domain that it deserved its own article, “Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: a 95-year Love Triangle.” Why is it a love triangle? What rights does Disney still have? How is trademark law involved? Read all about it here. 

Here is just a handful of the works that will be in the US public domain in 2024.[2]  They were first set to go into the public domain after a 56-year term in 1984, but a term extension pushed that date to 2004. They were then supposed to go into the public domain in 2004, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress hit another 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years.[3]  Now the wait is over. “To find more material from 1928, you can visit the Catalogue of Copyright Entries.”