Members Mandolin Picker Posted September 12, 2017 Members Share Posted September 12, 2017 From Ars Technica A federal judge ruled (PDF) on Friday that the most famous verse of the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" is not copyrighted. The ruling is a decisive, but still incomplete, win for the two plaintiffs. One of those plaintiffs is a charity group called the "We Shall Overcome Foundation" that's making a movie about the song, and the other is Butler Films LLC, a company that paid $15,000 to license just several seconds of the song for the movie "Lee Daniels' The Butler." In 1993, Seeger explained that he sought a copyright because his publishers told him, "If you don't copyright this now, some Hollywood types will have a version out next year like 'Come On Baby, We Shall Overcome Tonight.'" That convinced him to sign a 'songwriter's contract.' Seeger repeatedly asked for his name to be removed from the copyright, beginning in 1994, but it never was. More at https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/the-most-famous-civil-rights-song-we-shall-overcome-is-no-longer-copyrighted/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted September 13, 2017 Share Posted September 13, 2017 If it is in the public domain, there's nothing to stop people from doing derivative works - even distasteful ones. But that would be in really, really bad taste, and I suspect there would be major backlash against anyone who messed with an iconic song like that. One question, if anyone knows - if the first verse isn't covered by copyright, what about the rest? And what about the melody - isn't that the same as in the rest of the verses, and wouldn't it therefore be covered too, even though the lyrics are PD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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