Ah, this is one of my favorite topics, although it must be pointed out that the 50 year rule only involves countries under EU jurisdiction, the United States have totally different term length laws for recorded music specifically, which as I just recently became aware are likely about to change for the somewhat better.

Before 2012 in the EU copyright law was simple; 50 years after either recording or release (whichever is more recent I think), and then into the public domain. All well and good except for one small problem: the years were slowly approaching the 1960's, which is still considered incredibly valuable and marketable. So what to do? Extend the term lengths, and pressure mounted by people in the recording industry. However, the EU legislatures decided on an interesting compromise: works that were already released were extended another 20 years, however in order to be protected unreleased material had to be released. Doing so would (as I understand) ensure a full 70 years be given from the moment of release. For example, the newly released material on the recent Copyright protection sets will go out of copyright in 2088, whereas the previously released material will come out of copyright much earlier, starting in 2038 & 2039 and working up from there with material released on rarities collections. Rights holders have until the last second of the year to release this material for protection, failure to do so before the stoke of midnight ensures its release in the public domain.

It seems as though studio and live performances have different "rules" for protection. For studio, so long as 1 take from a particular session date is released, that song from that date is protected. If a remake was recorded later the process must be repeated. For live shows, everything (that exists at least) from a particular concert must be released for full protection, hence why we've been getting these huge live dumps.

The Beatles stopped doing theirs mostly because they really didn't need to (outside of those demos), as they don't have much unprotected unreleased material out there, and the BBC recordings as I understand have a totally different set of rights laws applied to them (over the air), so those ceased. But, to answer your question HeyJude yes, an audience recording from 1964 from anything other than the Sacramento shows would technically be in the public domain, at least in the EU. Again, the US have different laws.

The problem is being proud for not having paid for something. Hell, the whole 6 cd box set of The Beatles White Album sessions are on YouTube, but I still intend to buy it legally. It'll set me back quite a bit, but well worth it.

That's physical product. Not the same.  This is something available for free OFFICIALLY. Must throw that out there and emphasize.  I already bought it and then found out it was free LEGALLY AND OFFICIALLY

It's available on Spotify, but I was under the impression that the group and whoever their representatives are didn't have much of a say in it. It's still available to buy legally.

Right, but it is available on YouTube and Spotify, and if people for whatever reasons they have are choosing to hear the music on those official and legal platforms, what's the problem? I can see disagreeing with my reasoning, but I explained that and if it's appalling, so be it.

But listening on YouTube and Spotify are not to be shamed, I hope, if people are choosing to do so. The issue then becomes allowing those outlets to feature the tracks, not people who listen.

And some people simply do not buy digital downloads, and prefer hard-copy product especially on archival or vault material.

guitarfool, you do realize that unless you're using an ad-blocker, that streams from YouTube and Spotify are monetized by ads, right? Ads that go right into the coffers of the very people who you claim you wish not to support. Fractions of pennies at a time yes, but nonetheless it is financially reimbursing Capitol/UMe/Brother (as well as the streaming sites).

The issue here is that Alan saw what you had posted, and was suitably upset at the very least. I don't know about you, but if I'd put blood, sweat and tears into a product only to hear, regardless of the context, that someone immediately after congratulating me on it boasted that they had proudly not spent a dime on it, I'd be incredibly upset and disappointed at the bare minimum.

Also they're not going to appear on 7Digital anytime soon. They haven't updated the albums available since last month, and when I contacted them about this they said that they have no plans to add anything more for the foreseeable future.

They are up at 7Digital now

Must have added them after I complained. Thanks for the info! 

Have Mark or Alan said anything about a lossless/hi-res version being available to US customers who are holding out?  Or should we just give in to lossy?

Outside of the aformentioned Qobuz VPN loophole the only place in the US that they're currently available in FLAC that I'm aware of is the TIDAL store. $25.19 for Wake The World and $34.19 for I Can Hear Music.

Also they're not going to appear on 7Digital anytime soon. They haven't updated the albums available since last month, and when I contacted them about this they said that they have no plans to add anything more for the foreseeable future.

C-Man, this is a little off topic, but do you know if session tapes for the single version of "Cottonfields" still exist?

I hope so myself. I need a 2019 Stereo Mix of "Cottonfields (Single Version)" more accurate to the mono mix, pretty please Mark?

Wonderful work. Great job!

One observation I had was in regards to the worm on the Smiley Smile cover. Back when the album was being made (and indeed, throughout most of the 60's) cover slicks were usually produced to be longer vertically than horizontally. This was because of the need to have both mono and stereo covers, and in an effort to save costs companies like Capitol and, in this case, Brother would put their stereo (or, if necessary, whatever fake stereo process was being used) identifier at the top of the slick, so that they could crop it one way for stereo pressings, at the cost of losing part of the bottom, and for mono crop it another, so that the stereo designation could be hidden, at the cost of losing part of the top where it was. Smiley Smile was no exception.

With regards to reissues, they always seem to crop things differently each time, leading to varying results; some like the mono, some like the stereo, and some like the 1994 CD which is a weird in-between where they cropped it so that it has both the "For Stereo Phonographs" AND the worm.  ) So these days whether the worm is on the cover or not is dependent on who's on the job that day and/or which version they're referencing.

My current SMiLE sequence is kind of a "what if Jan '67" list, factoring in the new importance of the Heroes And Villains single. Even though it was unlikely to have an "Americana" side and an "Elementals" side it wasn't unheard of at the time for albums to have themed sides so I've stuck with that. Granted, I'm using elements from post SMiLE, but I once heard a mix years ago (now gone as it was deleted from YouTube) that exclusively used pre '67 material and, although fascinating, I found it to be quite bare-bones. Still working on the finishing touches but right now it looks something like this:

Side 1: Americana

Our Prayer (Unlisted)

1. Heroes And Villains
2. Do You Like Worms?
3. Wonderful
4. Child Is Father Of The Man
5. The Old Master Painter / My Only Sunshine
6. Cabin Essence

Side 2: The Elementals

1. Good Vibrations
2. I'm In Great Shape
3. Vega-Tables
4. The Elements
a). Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow)
b). Earth (I Wanna Be Around / Workshop)
c). Water (WH Water Chant, Dec '66 Dada piano pieces)
d). Air (Smog, Breathing Sounds, Wind Chimes V2 Tag)
5. Wind Chimes
6. Surf's Up

You're Welcome (Unlisted)

There we go; 2 sides, 12 songs, most having fadeouts. I'll report back once I'm done with a track-by-track breakdown.