The CLASSICS Act or Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, and Important Contributions to Society Act is Title II of the Music Modernization Act and was proposed legislation as H.R. 3301 of the 115th United States Congress to amend title 17 of the United States Code, to provide Federal protection to the digital audio transmission of a sound recording fixed before February 15, 1972, and for other purposes. The bill was first introduced in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

on July 19, 2017 by Representative

Darrell Issa Darrell Edward Issa ( ; born November 1, 1953) is an American businessman and politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 48th congressional district. He represented the 50th congressional district from 2021 to 2023. A memb ...

. A companion bill (S.2393) was introduced in the

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by Senator

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on February 7, 2018. The CLASSICS Act was consolidated into the Music Modernization Act (H.R.5447) on April 10, 2018. The Music Modernization Act passed in the House of Representatives on April 26, 2018, and passed the Senate on September 18, 2018, with the Senate renaming the bill the "Orrin G. Hatch Music Modernization Act" after Senator

Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senat ...

. The Music Modernization Act, with the CLASSICS Act codified as Title II within it, was signed into law by President

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on October 11, 2018. Previously, sound recordings made before February 15, 1972 were not covered by federal copyright protection. Some states granted these recordings copyright protection and some did not. The CLASSICS Act was designed to address the patchwork of laws in different jurisdictions. The law grants federal copyright protection of the recordings until February 15, 2067. The Music Modernization Act was revised to allow older songs to enter the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

. All recordings published before 1923 entered the public domain on January 1, 2022. Recordings published 1923–1946 have 100-year

copyright term The copyright term is the length of time copyright subsists in a work before it passes into the public domain. In most of the world, this length of time is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years https://w.wiki/ETPJ. Length of copyright ...

s, and those published 1947–1956 have 110-year terms.Copyright terms that last a given number of years expire at the end of the final year. For example, a work published on June 1, 1925 that has a term of 100 years would enter the public domain on January 1, 2026. Recordings will enter the public domain every January 1 from 2024 to 2047 and from 2058 to 2067.No recordings entered the public domain in 2023 due to the gap between the expiry date of the pre-1923 copyrights and the end of the first 100-year terms; likewise, none will enter between 2048 and 2057 due to the gap between the 100- and 110-year terms. All other recordings created before February 15, 1972, have their terms end on February 15, 2067.

Footnotes

References

{{USCopyrightActs Internet law in the United States First presidency of Donald Trump Proposed legislation of the 115th United States Congress United States federal copyright legislation