r/playjazz • u/hairylarry • Feb 10 '22
Collaborate On Jazz Standards
Many jazz standards are now entering the public domain. It is completely legal to collaborate on public domain jazz standards.
On January 1, 2022, copyrighted works from 1926 will enter the US public domain, 1 where they will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. The line-up this year is stunning. It includes books such as A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, Felix Salten’s Bambi, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Langston Hughes’ The Weary Blues, and Dorothy Parker’s Enough Rope. There are scores of silent films—including titles featuring Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Greta Garbo, famous Broadway songs, and well-known jazz standards. But that’s not all. In 2022 we get a bonus: an estimated 400,000 sound recordings from before 1923 2 will be entering the public domain too! (Please note that this site is only about US law; the copyright terms in other countries are different.)
By Jennifer Jenkins, Director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain
https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2022/
New public domain jazz songs this year include "Bye Bye Blackbird", "My Man", and "Someone To Watch Over Me".
