Template talk:PD-traditional

The Music Modernization Act, sound recordings, and US copyright

The template currently contains a reference to the {{PD-US-record}} template and the situation under US copyright law where a sound recording was first fixed before February 15, 1972. Under the Music Modernization Act, which was signed into law in October of this year, it appears that the US copyright situation for pre-1972 sound recordings has changed. In particular, this archived VP/C discussion may be of interest. From this, it appears that the template's information about US copyright law is outdated. --Gazebo (talk) 09:51, 25 November 2018 (UTC)

For adjusting the template, here is one possibility:

This file is in the public domain, because it is a recording based on a folkloric or traditional musical composition which has fallen out of copyright and any recording rights to this version have expired. In Germany, this recording right is called "Leistungsschutz" and lasts for 50 years from the date the work was created. For recordings from Italy, see Template:PD-Italy-audio. Other countries may have differing legislation. In the United States (where Wikimedia Commons is hosted), the vast majority of sound recordings are copyrighted as of 2018. See COM:L#Material in the public domain for more information. Works of foreign (non-U.S.) origin must be out of copyright or freely licensed in both their home country and in the United States in order to be accepted on Commons.

--Gazebo (talk) 10:10, 25 November 2018 (UTC)

I fully support this change (with the date updated for this year, of course).  Mysterymanblue  10:25, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

I've updated the template to reflect the US status of pre-1923 sound recordings. —RP88 (talk) 21:40, 5 January 2022 (UTC)