[catfish1957]

Ugh... We will be paying for Pandora before we know it.

[Alas Babylon!]

Hasn’t music that is older than 42 years served the copyright holders long enough?

It seems to me that after a generation has passed, the idea that playing that generation’s music preserves it. Also, how have radio stations been able to legally play music for free over the air waves for the past 90 or so years?

As the article states, sometimes due to deaths and legal issues, certain older copyrights are impossible to get licenses for. So the music, technically, cannot be played for any price.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

I’ve seen entire albums posted on YouTube as “fair use.” I’d hate to be a professional musician these days.

[Buckeye McFrog]

So move out of New York State. Like everyone else.
Problem solved.

[BwanaNdege]

If the big music plaintiffs in this case will begin paying royalties to the inventors back through history of all the wonderful technology & gadgets which make their music empire spossible, then I might listen to their complaints.

Patents expire after 20 years now. Why do the “artistes” intellectual property rights not do the same?

[B Knotts]

This is how the founding fathers addressed this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Act_of_1790

[zeugma]

Federal copyright law does not apply to pre-1972 recordings, but the plaintiffs say New York state law provides copyright protection for such recordings.

I think there is something missing from this. Federal copyright is eternal, and certainly covers recordings going back to the 20s. Perhaps there is a different law concerning (re)transmission that they are talking about.