Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Washington

Re: Donations to Libraries

Can they? Yes, the CDs physically exist and could physically be placed on the shelves that are available to the public.

Should they? NO. The library needs to contact an intellectual property attorney (there are several in Washington State) to determine how best to handle this mess they have put themselves into by accepting this donation.

To find an IP lawyer in your state, go to www.uspto.gov and click on Patents (on the left-hand side of the page). Do NOT click on "Copyrights" there. From the drop-down menu under Patents, click on Resources. Then, in the upper left of the resulting page, click on Registered Patent Attorneys and Agents. You'll get to a search page; select your state name from the listing of states for the search. This will bring up all the patent attorneys and agents who are located in your state. Call an ATTORNEY, not an agent (agents are non-attorney patent professionals who cannot provide legal advice outside of the patent prosecution scenario).

Good luck.

THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND IS NOT INTENDED, NOR SHOULD IT BE CONSTRUED, AS LEGAL ADVICE. THIS POSTING DOES NOT CREATE ANY ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN US. FOR SPECIFIC ADVICE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.

Re: Donations to Libraries

I did not see anyone else answer this yet, so I will take a stab at it. If the radio broadcasts were of copyrighted music (likely), then even making the CD's could be infringement of the copyrights involved. Making them available to the public would also be infringement. There is a limited "educational purpose" exception in the copyright laws designed to protect works played in a classroom setting, but this does not seem like it would fall under that exception.