Even THEN you can't be sure. While the song ITSELF may be Public
Domain and would certainly be if copyrighted prior to 1923, specific
arrangements and performances (including MIDI files) and recordings of
it can still be copyrighted. If you obtain original or pre-1923 sheet
music to, say, "I've Been Working on the Railroad," make your OWN
arrangement or use one that you know for sure predates 1923 (NOT the one
from Heritage of Harmony / PG Music "The Barbershop Quartet" or the one
that Power Play sings, for instance), and either make and upload your
own MIDI or MusicXML or Finale .MUS or .MYRiad or .PDF file from it, or
record your own Quartet singing it (or just yourself singing all four
parts via multi-track recording) and upload the resulting .MP3 or
streaming audio file (or upload a recording that you know for a fact
predates 1923), then and ONLY then can you be absolutely sure of being
legally compliant without asking permission from someone first or giving
in and paying ASCAP fees.

Fair Use would hypothetically allow you to upload a few measures of a
copyrighted song without permission or fees, if done for educational
purposes or purposes of review, but there are no hard-and-fast rules on
Fair Use, and you can still be sued. You'd probably win if it were
obviously within the intent of Fair Use, but it would still be
inconvenient and costly (even if the losing plaintiff had to pay
attorney's fees and court costs, what about the time you have to spend
away from work defending yourself in court?). Better to be safe than
sorry in this day and age of WAAAAAY too strong copyright laws (thank
you Sonny Bono -- NOT!!).

> Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:21:31 -0400
> From: Derek Hatley <hatley@...>
>Subject: Re: Playing Music On A Web Site
>
>On Jun 10, 2005, at 11:57 AM, Gary Efron wrote:
>
>
>
>>Hi,
>>Does anyone know have any information about what music on the internet
>>does not require ASCAP fees?
>>
>>
>
>I am no copyright expert, but under US copyright law, only songs
>first published and copyrighted before 1923 are for certain in the
>public domain, but it is considerably more complicate than that for
>other songs. It's best to assume that anything published after 1922
>is still under copyright and cannot be used in any way without the
>consent of the copyright holder.
>
>I highly recommend:
>
>http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm
>
>for all the gory details.
>
>For songs published in the UK, the laws are different, and are
>summarized at:
>
>http://copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>Harmoniously,
>
> Derek
>
>