In your policies, it states that all old time radio CDs and many DVDs are in the public domain. What does this mean?
We carry many titles on audio CD and DVD-R that are understood to be in the public domain. Many are old time radio (OTR) or television shows whose copyright was abandoned and passed into the public domain, but for which we have created new copyrighted label art.
When you get down to brass tacks, entertainment from the golden age of radio and TV was figuratively (and sometimes literally) treated as garbage. Almost all of this work (especially on radio) was never copyrighted, and exists because of the rescue, remastering, and distribution by fans and hobbyists. Their continued existence is because of collectors and archivists in clubs like SPERDVAC, and on-air hosts who began rebroadcasting this material in the 1970s.
There has been substantial legal research done showing that these items are in the public domain, and have been for at least thirty years. The rule of thumb is that British recordings prior to 1973 and American recordings prior to 1978 are likely to be in the public domain, under the abandoned property doctrine, and/or the expiration of common copyright by those who could have held a claim over these rights.
Unfortunately, there are some controversial figures within the old time radio community who have made claims regarding their “sole licensing” of various shows, while refusing to provide proof of these claims. In fact, in the court case CBS vs. Silverman, the judgment found that the trademark and shows of Amos n’ Andy were in the public domain and had been abandoned. This is assumed to be the case for the vast majority of old time radio shows. The Shadow is one of the only OTR shows that remains in copyright, due to it being a derivative of a creative work (stories published in a magazine) that did not leave copyright. We do not sell episodes of The Shadow.
Sadly, one former owner of a company selling OTR threatened legal action against retired dealers and OTR traders, men and women who had painstakingly saved old radio shows in the first place – in short, the very same people he should have thanked for the explosive growth of his company.
Others disparage the idea of providing material in the public domain, even as TV shows and films continue with public domain characters like Sherlock Holmes and public domain stories like Pride and Prejudice.
Our reason for offering public domain material is to share our passion for these stories and performances. We have an abiding interest and experience in creating original work (one of NoirDame’s cofounders is a published writer and former freelance journalist), and we will never knowingly trepass on another person’s copyright. We also pay our contributors for the use of their copyrighted articles, and allow their copyright to revert back to them after our first and limited publication rights.
We resell but do not reproduce items from original manufacturers, publishers and creators who continue to hold their own copyrights, and we will always respect the rights of those who still hold copyright over their creations - just as we ask that our copyright, on our label art and original productions, and all copyrighted content and trademarks on this website be fully respected and upheld to the full extent of the law.
If
you faithfully believe you are the rights holder of one of the shows we
carry, please provide extensive legal documentation showing your ownership,
and we will withdraw any item in question after discussion and investigation
by legal counsel.
What makes NoirDame’s old time radio CDs different from others in the marketplace?
First of all, we constantly seek a balance between good quality and a reasonable price. NoirDame’s mission is to introduce more people to old time radio and classic media like film, television, and literature, including baby boomers, Gen-Xers and the “millennial” generation which did not grow up hearing, seeing and reading this material.
We know that we can’t provide terrific service if our product sounds terrible, or is too expensive for the average person to buy. So we provide clean, remastered audio, in a package that is not cost-prohibitive, that retains some of the nostalgic glow of radio’s salad days. We remaster and fix all shows for better audio fidelity and clarity, including those on MP3, with professional audio software, removing pops, clicks, and scratches, along with background hiss and noise, where possible.
How
can I tell whether my machine will play this DVD-R?
Many of the DVDs NoirDame sells are transferred, and duplicated on DVD-R,
from original master tapes, kinescopes and other archived media. They
are all encoded in NTSC standard (US, Mexico, Japan, Canada) but can be
read on multi-system machines (which read PAL, NTSC, SECAM standard discs).
Almost all NTSC DVD players work with DVD-R: all computers with DVD drives
can play DVD-R, and most tabletop players are able to play DVD-R. A rule
of thumb is that a tabletop player manufactured earlier than 2000 may
have difficulty reading a DVD-R disc. DVD-R capability has slowly become
standard in the industry.
If you own a DVD player manufactured before 2000, and wish to order one
of these DVDs, you may wish to use a DVD-R disc on your computer’s
DVD player, or upgrade to a new and economical model, today offered in
stores like Target for $75-100.
Below is a list from the DVD-R manufacturer, listing players that do and do not work properly with these DVD-R discs.
Approved Players |
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| All manufactured 2000 or later | |
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Semi-Approved Players |
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All Manufactured 2000 Or Later These units can play DVD-Rs but will not be able to use the chapter selection or scan (beyond 2x) functions. They are limited to menu selection and playback only. |
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What is a PayPal “confirmed address”?
PayPal is a payment processor, but not a financial institution (such as a bank or credit union) as we normally understand it. Instead of providing the kind of merchant verification that a bank might typically offer with a credit card processing machine, PayPal requires sellers to ship to a “confirmed address”. This confirmed address is supposed to match up with the credit card holder’s actual address and identity. The confirmed address is a lot like the signature panel on the back of your credit card – some people don’t see the point until they have a problem. Without a signature on the back to confirm (and merchants who unwisely refuse to check the AVS number or the signature), if it gets into the wrong hands, it can cause trouble.Years ago, someone attempted to pay us through PayPal with a stolen credit card number. If we had ignored the confirmed address clause, we might have been privy to someone’s identity theft. We encourage all buyers to read as widely as possible regarding PayPal, which has both good and bad points, and learn as much as possible about the state of credit cards, by checking out Clark Howard’s website.
I’d like to order a gift and ship it to a second address. Can I do this?
You sure can! However, we cannot accept PayPal payments for this kind of order. We will also be confirming this information before shipping. If you would like to ship some of your order to one address and part of it to another address, please email us, so that we can invoice you properly.
What are your restrictions or costs for shipping abroad?
Please check out our Shipping Rates section to review shipping details; note that there are different restrictions for “high risk” countries which have historically high rates of credit card fraud and mail loss.
I’d like to order the slower “Standard” shipping, or the fast “Super Express” shipping option, How do I do that?
Our shopping cart defaults to Expedited shipping. To order one of the other shipping methods, you may either email us directly requesting an invoice, or process through checkout, and select as your payment method “Re-invoice for Standard Shipping” or “Re-invoice for Overnight Shipping”. This will send us the order, without charging you; we will then follow up by email and send a corrected invoice with the lower (or higher, for Super Express) shipping cost.