Is Elvis Presley's music in the public domain?
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M$2 Answers
first, the rights to the words and music belong to the composer/songwriters. elvis wrote very few (if any) of the songs he turned into hits.
then, his recordings of those songs have their own copyright, and if you wanted to use them in your movie or if you wanted to release "The Top Twelve Best love songs by Elvis Presley" or some such, you would ALSO have to acquire the synchronization rights. (You can't afford them, trust me. However, if you were going to sell thousands of records, or make a movie with a big budget, sure... you could make it happen.)
Unfortunately, in the United States, there is VERY LITTLE chance of ANYTHING going into the public domain that was created after 1928. What's so special about 1928? I'm glad you asked. That was the year that walt disney released _steamboat willie_ and the disney lawyers will keep buying enough congresscritters to rewrite the laws to extend their copyright into the future.
Or else, M-I-C (See you in COURT!) K-E-Y (Why? Because we're suing you!) M-O-U-S-E will getcha!
now, to answer your second question ... take a look at: http://www.pdinfo.com/list.php
and read this: http://www.pdinfo.com/faq.php
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M$
See also:
http://www.publicdomainworks.net - Public domain works database
http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br - Brazilian government public domain works database
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain - Wikipedia's article about public domain
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M$
Super helpful. And very much appreciated.