Singer-Songwriter Tom Leher Releases Lyrics to the Public Domain

Copyright law—in the United States, especially—is complicated. The rules for when intellectual property enters the public domain has changed over time, and on several occasions, the length of copyright protection has been significantly extended, adding decades before the public is granted permission to reproduce, perform, or distribute the copyrighted material without paying royalties.

Here’s a concise overview of Copyright Music Law 101, which includes the paragraph below:

Works Created and Published or Registered BEFORE January 1, 1978: These works are generally protected for 75 years from the date the work was published with a copyright notice or on the date of the registration if the work was registered in unpublished form.  For such pre-1978 copyrights still subsisting on October 27, 1998, Congress extended the term by 20 years, providing for a total term of protection of 95 years.

This means that a copyrighted song published in 1960 wouldn’t enter the public domain until 2055—35 years from now! Unless, of course, the copyright owner decides to relinquish their copyright and make their intellectual property part of the public domain.

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Retired singer-songwriter/composer/satirist/mathematician/teacher (what a resumé!) Tom Lehrer is 92 years old (b. 1928), and this week he released his entire catalogue of song lyrics to the public domain. Lehrer was most active as a composer and songwriter from 1950-1970. His songs were satirical and often risqué (for the times). He parodied popular musical styles while writing political, topical, and darkly humorous songs (see: Poisoning Pigeons in the Park).

In the 1960s, Lehrer wrote songs for the U.S. edition of the satirical television show, That Was the Week That Was, and he wrote 10 songs for the educational children’s program, The Electric Company, in the 1970s. Tom Lehrer largely withdrew from performing and recording music in the 1970s to teach mathematics and musical theater, although his songs are still quite popular (The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel has more than 49,000 Youtube Subscribers). If you’re a new fan, here are a few favorites: Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, New Math, The Masochism Tango, The Elements, and Oedipus Rex.

Thank you, Tom Lehrer and the Tom Lehrer Trust 2000, for giving the public so much joy—and so much earlier than copyright law required! Keep on the lookout for more updates at tomlehrersongs.com—they’ve announced that most of the music will be added to the public domain as well (with disclaimers).

I, Tom Lehrer, and the Tom Lehrer Trust 2000, hereby grant the following permission:

All the lyrics on this website, whether published or unpublished, copyrighted or uncopyrighted, may be downloaded and used in any manner whatsoever, without requiring any further permission from me or any payment to me or to anyone else.

Some lyrics written by Tom Lehrer to copyrighted music by others are included herein, but of course such music may not be used without permission of the copyright owners. (The translated songs may be found in their original languages on YouTube.)

In other words, all the lyrics herein should be treated as though they were in the public domain.
In particular, permission is hereby granted to anyone to set any of these lyrics to their own music and publish or perform their versions without fear of legal action.

This permission applies only to the lyrics on this website. Most of the music written by Tom Lehrer will be added gradually later with further disclaimers.

Wikimedia Commons has already added PDFs of the song lyrics to its public domain archive, but if you want to download them yourself, you have four years. The Tom Lehrer team was kind enough to give advanced notice of when their website (tomlehrersongs.com) will shut down: December 31, 2024.