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Someone told me that if you re-record a song that is over 30 years old you don"t have to have written permission to release it. Is that true? Is there a time line on recording someones else song without getting permission? Thanks for everyones input.

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pmolsonmus Tue, 11/30/2004 - 19:48

You can record something that is currently in the public domain. To find out if something is in the public domain however can be a tricky business. Things can be there because the responsible party forgot to renew or because the time limit elapsed. It is however a longer time period than 30 yrs. We're just getting into the period of American popular song (Irving Berlin, etc...) that is starting to fall into public domain.
Take the above advise and do your homework. A good source is Harry Fox for searchable data bases.