The Artful Jurist

Yes, copyright law is supposed to benefit society by encouraging people to create works of artistic merit that then enrich the world through their distribution.  But sometimes the results of copyright can be the exact opposite of that intended goal.  Case in point, there's a newly discovered collection of recordings made of live performances of the swing era that includes many jazz greats performing the longer works that wouldn't have fit on the 78 RPM record discs of the time.  Following the owner's death, the collection came into the hands of the National Jazz Museum of Harlem.

"Hooray!" you jazz fans exclaim.  "Now we'll get to hear these recordings once they're released to the public."

But not so fast.  Apparently, the museum isn't planning on releasing them.  That's not because it wouldn't like to do that.  It's because tracking down the music's copyright owners and securing all the necessary permissions to release these decades-old recordings could prove a colossal task for the museum, and one it's not prepared to undertake.

You can learn more by reading the article in the American Bar Association's ABA Journal.  And, just as intriguing to me... If you want a good example of just how complicated copyright law can get, check out the legal debate in the comments at the end of the article.