Re: Writing Someone Else's Song (was: Pagey vs the Beatles)

["samba -" <sambacomet@hotmail.com>]

  That sounds like he should have given credit. Royalties wouldn't be 
owed. 
Stuff becomes public domain eventually.Royalties used to be owed for 50 
years after an author's death-I think that's been changed due to pressure 
from Disney ,for continued rights to Mickey Mouse-all of Walt's stuff I 
guess.
" traditional..by Decker " is a little confusing ,tradtitional usually 
means 
no known author,a folk song. (Writings and compositions weren't credited 
as 
to authorship until the Gutenberg printing press.) Either way it's surely 
public domain.


One day while Paul was visiting his father at his Cheshire home, he
began playing the piano, and looked through a songbook that belonged
to his stepsister, Ruth. (His father, James had remarried by this
time.) In this book he came across a traditional lullaby by Thomas
Dekker from the 17th century. But, as he was unable to read music, he
began to make up his own melody and new lyrics, and Golden Slumbers
was born.