What are my legal usage of very old (pre-1900) music on my website?

I want to create a website dedicated to celebrating 100 years of technology -- as a result, I want to have old ephemera particularly mp3 downloads of very old wax recordings from 1890-1907 .. I know alot of this is out of copyright; but what are my legal ability/usage rights and what ethics does this raise?

not usre of thr precise rights.. Id reccomend that you check it

but performers rights expire 50 years after the publication / release date... hence why Artisit like Cliff Richard, the Bee Gees are so concerend as thir recordings are coming out of copyright.

composers rights last longer... Im not sure that may well be 25 years after death

so any recordings that are more than 50 years old should be free form copyright restrictions. so there shoudl be no need for Performing Rights payments

as you aren't reproducing the words or whatever I dont see why you should have a problem with the composer restricitons

However one potential problem I can see is that the web is international, and there may be a risk that you run foul of overseas copyright. for example US copyright is much longer. I dont know how it would work if you published material in good faith on a UK site, compliant with UK copyright laws, where the music was downloaded elsewhere. There have already been atttmepts (particularly int he US) to impose US laws on non US websites and business, claimign that non US nationals must obey US law even if the site isnt hosted in the US.

Again its a serious problem, and I woudl honestly reccomend that you get proper legal advice on it.. you dont want to be hit by some scummy lawyer, acting for a scummy record company outside the UK trying to hit you for royalties

As far as I know, copyright on music lasts 50 years. After that, it's part of the public domain, but you can't claim that you wrote the song.

(UK) Copyright lasts for the life of the originator of the works plus 70 years. This being so then the music you mention may be out of copyright by now.....I think I would risk it.

Hi, I believe copyright for music lasts around 70 years in the US and 50 years in the UK. After that, you should have no problems.

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