“We Shall Overcome” Could Not Overcome the Public Domain: A Lesson in Copyright Provenance and Clearing Rights

by BARRY WERBIN, ESQ

The late Pete Seeger’s iconic civil rights song “We Shall Overcome” was thrust into the copyright limelight in 2017 when a New York federal court ruled that the original 1948 copyrighted version of the sheet music (with lyrics), which was owned by Seeger’s company, People’s Songs, Inc., had fallen into the public domain in 1976, thereby ending all copyright protection. 

Black and white banjo

The late Pete Seeger’s iconic civil rights song “We Shall Overcome” was thrust into the copyright limelight in 2017 when a New York federal court ruled that the original 1948 copyrighted version of the sheet music (with lyrics), which was owned by Seeger’s company, People’s Songs, Inc., had fallen into the public domain in 1976, thereby ending all copyright protection.1

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Barry Werbin

is counsel at Herrick, Feinstein LLP where he heads the firm’s intellectual property and technology practices. Barry was prior Chair of the NYC Bar Association’s Copyright Committee, and Co-Chair of the Copyright Society’s NY Chapter.