of musical, spoken, or other sounds that were fixed on or after February 15, 1972.  Sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972, are not eligible for federal copyright protection.  The Sound Recording Act of 1971, the present copyright law, and the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988 cannot be applied or be construed to provide any retroactive protection for sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972.  Such works, however, may be protected by various state laws or doctrines of common law.

THE DATE IN THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE

If you find a copyright notice, the date it contains may be important in determining the copyright status of the work.  In general, the notice on works published before 1978 must include the year in which copyright was secured by publication or, if the work was first registered for copyright in unpublished form, the year in which registration was made.  There are two main exceptions to this rule.

1.  For pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works (Classes F through K under
   the 1909 law), the law permitted omission of the year date in the
   notice.

2.  For “new versions” of previously published or copyrighted works, the
   notice was not usually required to include more than the year of first
   publication of the new version itself.  This is explained further under
   “Derivative Works” below.

The year in the notice usually (though not always) indicated when the copyright began.  It is, therefore, significant in determining whether a copyright is still in effect; or, if the copyright has not yet run its course, the year date will help in deciding when the copyright is scheduled to expire.  For further information about the duration of copyright, request Circular 15a, “Duration of Copyright.”  In evaluating the meaning of the date in a notice, you should keep the following points in mind: 

WORKS PUBLISHED AND COPYRIGHTED BEFORE JANUARY 1, 1978:  A work published before January 1, 1978, and copyrighted within the past 75 years may still be protected by copyright in the United States if a valid renewal registration was made during the 28th year of the first term of the copyright.  If renewed by registration or under the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992 and if still valid under the other provisions of the law, the copyright will expire 95 years from the end of the year in which it was first secured.

Therefore, the U.S. copyright in any work published or copyrighted prior to January 1, 1923, has expired by operation of law, and the work has permanently fallen into the public domain in the United States.  For example, on January 1, 1997, copyrights in works first published or copyrighted before January 1, 1922, have expired; on January 1, 1998, copyrights in works first published or copyrighted before January 1, 1923, have expired.  Unless the copyright law is changed again, no works under protection on January 1, 1999 will fall into the public domain in the United States until January 1, 2019.