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SousyHawk wrote: When does published music enter the "public domain"?

The rule of thumb for music published in the US is that anything copyrighted 1923 and before is PD. The rest won't begin to enter the public domain until about 2019, assumig that the Congress doesn't tinker with the laws again to make the world safe for Mickey Mouse.

See the Library of Congress web stie for detailed information:

http://www.loc.gov

I believe in Canada that music enters the public domain after the composer/arranger/editor have all been dead for more than 50 years.

SousyHawk wrote:...... it would be a shame if a lot of this music was simply lost..... I don't mean this as some type of an assult on publishers - even putting together and "hosting" such a library would be a pretty large undertaking in itself. (Besides, the prices for a lot of the "older" band music seems somewhat reasonable - I found the 'marching band' set for Barnhouse's publication of King's "Barnum and Bailey's Favorite" to be $25.00.)

ALL of the publishers should take a lesson from Barnhouse. Everything ever publilshed by Barnhouse is available from their archives. I recently filled out my set of the 'Karl King March Book' by purchasing copies from archive. They were expensive... $10 for each little 'march book'... but well worth it if you consider that there are 16 excellent marches contained therein. You are correct... with modern technology there is absolutely no reason for popular music to be out of print. ... other that the fact that the publishers would rather force the new stuff down our throats! I understand that everyone's gotta eat but I find this practice deplorable! Shame shame.

SousyHawk wrote: When does published music enter the "public domain"?

Given the way congress is acting, never. They will continue to extend the copyright term for longer and longer terms, untill the perpetual copyright is obtained. The original intent is gone, and now it might as well be considered forever on anything since 1923.

It would be nice to see the copyright and patent systems returned to their original intent. Like requiring copyright registration, and shorter terms. There's a lot of great stuff out there that we cannot access legaly.

You are absolutely correct that the original intent of copyright law has been lost. It now exists to protect the publishers. No one cares about the composer or about encouraging creativity. It is all about the money.