ah buzby if onlt the 'rights' issue were that simple (and now intellectiual property rights as well as licence issues). For one thing it all depends where your 50 years starts from. Also, as ever, the utterly arrogant USA has it own rules of up to 70 years and their willing cultural colonial agents in the form of global corporations, in effect enforce the 70 years on anyone they deal with anywhere in the world.
There is also the complication of what the rights and licenses actually cover - the full product/ individual performances/ subsequent binding contractual extentions etc.as a huge and wonderful vcr archive of live folk performances in the west of Scotland in the late 80s and 90s. The filming was all with the consent of the artists, event organisers and venue managers. He is now finding it impossible to reproduce the contents except on the very most commercial basis - and everybody wants their bight. Which is a pity becuase our aim had been a sort of -not-for-profit archive compilation for the general commonwealth and that would provide the basis for an ongoing and interactive programme of enjoyment, sharing and exchange. We specifically did not want it all to end up in some offcial museum/archive where it slowly wasted away from neglect and obscurity.
And that is just some of the issues around rights, licences etc.