{"id":9093,"date":"2022-01-13T20:26:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T04:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/?p=9093"},"modified":"2022-01-13T20:26:39","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T04:26:39","slug":"we-shall-overcome-burdensome-copyright-restrictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2022\/01\/we-shall-overcome-burdensome-copyright-restrictions\/","title":{"rendered":"We shall overcome burdensome copyright restrictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I recently learned that the song “We Shall Overcome” is now in the public domain, due to a 2017 court ruling and a 2018 settlement. A lawyer tells the whole story in some detail here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short version: In 2017, a federal court ruled that the tune, arrangement, and first verse of \u201cWe Shall Overcome\u201d are in the public domain (We Shall Overcome Foundation v. The Richmond Organization, Inc., 2017 WL 3981311 [S.D.N.Y. Sept. 8, 2017]). In addition to the court ruling, the defendant and plaintiff subsequently entered into a settlement agreement which said, in part, that TRO would not \u201cclaim copyright in the melody or lyrics of any verse of the song \u2018We Shall Overcome\u2019\u201d; furthermore, TRO agreed that all verses of the song were \u201chereafter dedicated to the public domain\u201d (We Shall Overcome Foundation v. The Richmond Org., 330 F. Supp. 3d 960 [S.D.N.Y. 2018]).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is very good news indeed. Sure, now the song can be used in all sorts of horrible advertising. At the same time, now you cannot be slapped with a royalty fee for using “We Shall Overcome” in your worship service, in the video that you made of some rally or demonstration, or in the audio recording of you singing at a coffeehouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, just about all the piano or choral arrangements out there are copyright protected, including the one in the current UU hymnal. So here’s a very basic arrangement of “We Shall Overcome” which I’m releasing into the public domain; and hey, if you don’t like my version, it’s a public domain song so you can write your own! (I’ve changed a couple of the usual verses so they’re less ableist.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click the image above for sheet music.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the way, I’m finding that it’s a good song to sing around the house now that we’re hunkered down because of the Omicron surge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently learned that the song “We Shall Overcome” is now in the public domain, due to a 2017 court ruling and a 2018 settlement. A lawyer tells the whole story in some detail here. The short version: In 2017, a federal court ruled that the tune, arrangement, and first verse of \u201cWe Shall Overcome\u201d … Continue reading “We shall overcome burdensome copyright restrictions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,132],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-9093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musical-arts","category-practical-religion","tag-hymnody"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9093"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9096,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9093\/revisions\/9096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}