From Newsgroup: rec.music.folk

On Thursday, July 13, 2017 at 7:05:37 AM UTC-7, will.d...@gmail.com wrote:

On Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at 7:03:50 PM UTC-4, ersc...@email.arizona.edu wrote:

It won't be in public domain until 2070.

On Friday, November 6, 1998 at 1:00:00 AM UTC-7, Michael Futreal wrote:

Who wrote You Are My Sunshine? Is this a song that can be freely
covered without ASCAP coming to get ya? Does anybody happen to know off the top of their head?

I recorded a minor key version of this song for Appalachian dulcimer (an improvisational piece that incorporates a minorized version of the melody as well the first verse + additional lyrics) for my self-released cd. I just kind of assumed when it occured to me to play around with it that it was a traditional public domain thing. Now, however, I'm
curious as to whether or not that is the case... Anybody?

Michael Futreal
The Offramps -- hear us at http://offramps.simplenet.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Are_My_Sunshine#Authorship

Authorship[edit]
While Davis and Mitchell are the credited songwriters of "You Are My Sunshine", Davis was never known to actually claim authorship, as he bought the song and rights from Paul Rice and put his own name on it, a practice not uncommon in the pre-World War II music business.[10] Some early versions of the song credit the Rice Brothers. Descendants and associates of Oliver Hood, a LaGrange, Georgia musician who collaborated with Rice, claim Hood wrote the song in the early 1930s, first performing it in 1933 at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention at LaGrange, Georgia in 1933.[10] According to some accounts,[which?] clarinetist Pud Brown was also involved with the Rice Brothers for the song's origin or first arrangement. Davis said that for some time he had been enthusiastic about the song and had unsuccessfully tried to convince record companies to record it before finally making his own 1940 record of the song. Davis' version was popular and was followed by numerous other covers, including those of Bing Crosby and Gene Autry, whose versions made the number a big hit. Davis emphasized his association with the song when running for governor of Louisiana in 1944, singing it at all his campaign rallies, while riding on a horse named "Sunshine".

Published 1940 by Southern Music Pub. Co., Inc., which is Peer's company
Got this from early sheet music
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