Any original work is protected by copyright, whether it be a newspaper article or a novel, a pop song or a symphony, a painting or a web site, a screenplay or a television documentary. In general, that protection lasts for 70 years from the author’s death, where there is a single individual author, or from the first publication where the author is a company or some other collective entity. You can make no use of a copyright-protected work without the copyright owner’s permission. Getting that permission invariably means paying a fee.

But the fact that the author has been dead for more than 70 years does not necessarily mean that you can make free use of the work. The musicologist who produces a new

edition of a Mozart symphony, or the arranger who orchestrates a jazz standard, owns the copyright in that edition or arrangement; and the record company that publishes a CD of a Beethoven quartet owns the copyright in the recording, just as the writer who adapts a Jane Austen novel for the screen owns the copyright in the screenplay; and the producer of the television version owns the copyright in the screen version.

Analogous protection, called performers’ rights, is enjoyed by actors, musicians and others who appear in recorded performances. Their performances may not be used without their permission, and getting that permission invariably means paying a fee.