Roger Miller's widow (Queen of the Road?) wins rights to classic songs

Mary Miller, the widow of the late, great country star Roger Miller, has won the rights to her late husband's 1964 hits, which includes the classic gem "King of the Road."

In a previous case, courts had ruled that Sony Music owned the rights to Miller's songs from 1958-1963 because they had renewed them after the initial 28 year copyright period that was required at the time. Miller passed away before the 1964 songs could be renewed, but the court determined that Sony had an implied right to those tunes. That was the ruling that was overturned this week.

Read more about it in the Nashville Tennessean (where else?).

This is a good real-life illustration of an oft-confusing quirk about 20th Century copyright law in the United States. Works from between 1923 and 1963 that were published with a copyright notice had to be renewed after 28 years. Generally, the big-name publishers (popular books, hit records, movies, etc.) kept very close tabs on their renewals. However, many items were not renewed and thus entered the public domain.

To figure out if a copyright work is in the public domain because of a failure to renew the copyright, first determine the year of publication. If it is between 1923 and 1963, check to see if it was renewed (you can do it at the library or online at Stanford's Copyright Renewal Database.)

"I'm a maaan of means, by no means..."