Sound Recording Sampling - Confused - Feb,15 1972?

[Gooze]

I was told that if a song was recorded on or before Feb. 15 1972 no matter what, it legally has no copyright and can be freely sampled. I was wondering if this is true or not. I went to the online copyright office and found some of this liturature written below on their circular 56. I was hoping someone would be able to explain this better to me and let me know if this is true or not. I would greatly appreciate anyone's help.

Thanks,

Mike


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Sound recordings fixed before February
15, 1972, were generally protected by common law
or in some cases by statutes enacted in certain
states but were not protected by federal copy-right
law. In 1971 Congress amended the copy-right
code to provide copyright protection for
sound recordings fixed and first published with
the statutory copyright notice on or after Febru-ary
15, 1972. The 1976 Copyright Act, effective
January 1, 1978, provides federal copyright pro-tection
for unpublished and published sound
recordings fixed on or after February 15, 1972.
Any rights or remedies under state law for
sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972,
are not annulled or limited by the 1976 Copyright
Act until February 15, 2047.
Under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, effec-tive
January 1, 1996, copyright was restored for cer-tain
unpublished foreign sound recordings fixed be-fore
February 15, 1972, and for certain foreign sound
recordings originally published without notice. For fur-ther
information, request Circular 38b, “Highlights of
Copyright Amendments Contained in the Uruguay
Round Agreements Act (URAA).