{
  "id": "dynasty-vault-clock",
  "title": "The Vault Clock",
  "subtitle": "Mass universe first. Limits second.",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "updated_at": "2026-07-26",
  "doctrine": "Decade is the primary index. Year is the drill-down inside it. The Library does not shop for tracks — it draws from a known mass of vetted, digitized public-domain sides and then applies a hard curation cap. No work enters a shelf without a documented rights status and a documented source.",
  "as_of": "2026-07-26",
  "open_through_year": 1925,
  "curation_rule": {
    "cap_per_era": 10,
    "index_order": [
      "decade",
      "year"
    ],
    "statement": "No more than 10 works per era reach a shelf.",
    "note": "Against a documented pool of roughly 15,000-plus digitized public-domain sides, a 10-work era cohort is better than a 99.9% curation cut. The cut is the product. The mass is the proof that the cut means something. Volume and legality are separate tests: the cap decides how many, the PD Evaluator decides whether any of them may publish at all."
  },
  "rights_windows": [
    {
      "band": "Published before 1923",
      "term": "Public domain since January 1, 2022",
      "status": "open"
    },
    {
      "band": "Published 1923-1946",
      "term": "100 years from publication",
      "status": "rolling",
      "detail": "One year opens every January 1. 1925 opened January 1, 2026. The final annual tranche is 1946, opening January 1, 2047."
    },
    {
      "band": "Published 1947-1956",
      "term": "110 years from publication",
      "status": "locked",
      "detail": "After a ten-year pause, these open January 2058 through January 2067."
    },
    {
      "band": "Fixed 1957 through February 14, 1972",
      "term": "Protected as a block",
      "status": "locked",
      "detail": "Opens February 15, 2067. This is why the 1960s cohort sits on clearance hold and not on a shelf."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "law": "Music Modernization Act, Classics Protection and Access Act (2018)",
      "cite": "Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain",
      "url": "https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2026/"
    }
  ],
  "source_universe": {
    "headline": "Tens of thousands of vetted, digitized public-domain sides are available right now.",
    "registries": [
      {
        "name": "Discography of American Historical Recordings (UCSB)",
        "short": "DAHR",
        "documented_public_domain": 132000,
        "digitized": 32000,
        "note": "Over 132,000 documented recordings are now public domain; over 32,000 of those are digitized by the UCSB Library. DAHR documents over 11,000 recordings made in 1925 alone — an all-time high for the industry — of which over 2,800 are already digitized.",
        "url": "https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/resources/detail/516"
      },
      {
        "name": "Library of Congress National Jukebox",
        "short": "LOC",
        "digitized": 10000,
        "note": "Roughly 10,000 historical recordings, curated and rights-cleared by the Library of Congress.",
        "url": "https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-jukebox/about-this-collection/rights-and-access/"
      },
      {
        "name": "Internet Archive Great 78 Project",
        "short": "Great 78",
        "digitized": 180000,
        "target": 3000000,
        "note": "Over 180,000 sides digitized against a stated target of 3 million. Preservation transfers, not remasters — condition varies and each candidate is auditioned before it enters a cohort.",
        "url": "https://great78.archive.org/"
      }
    ]
  },
  "decades": [
    {
      "id": "1900s",
      "label": "1900s",
      "range": "1900-1909",
      "status": "open",
      "opened_on": "2022-01-01",
      "cap": 10,
      "selected": 0,
      "cohort_album_id": null,
      "note": "Acoustic era. Fully open since the first MMA tranche. No cohort built yet."
    },
    {
      "id": "1910s",
      "label": "1910s",
      "range": "1910-1919",
      "status": "open",
      "opened_on": "2022-01-01",
      "cap": 10,
      "selected": 0,
      "cohort_album_id": null,
      "note": "Fully open. Ragtime, early jazz, dance bands, vaudeville. No cohort built yet."
    },
    {
      "id": "1920s",
      "label": "1920s",
      "range": "1920-1929",
      "status": "partial",
      "cap": 10,
      "selected": 6,
      "cohort_album_id": "pd-1923-cohort",
      "note": "Open through 1925. The back half of the decade unlocks one year at a time.",
      "years": [
        {
          "year": 1920,
          "status": "open",
          "opened_on": "2022-01-01"
        },
        {
          "year": 1921,
          "status": "open",
          "opened_on": "2022-01-01"
        },
        {
          "year": 1922,
          "status": "open",
          "opened_on": "2022-01-01"
        },
        {
          "year": 1923,
          "status": "open",
          "opened_on": "2024-01-01",
          "cohort_album_id": "pd-1923-cohort",
          "selected": 6
        },
        {
          "year": 1924,
          "status": "open",
          "opened_on": "2025-01-01"
        },
        {
          "year": 1925,
          "status": "open",
          "opened_on": "2026-01-01",
          "note": "11,000+ sides documented. The industry's biggest year to date."
        },
        {
          "year": 1926,
          "status": "locked",
          "opens_on": "2027-01-01"
        },
        {
          "year": 1927,
          "status": "locked",
          "opens_on": "2028-01-01"
        },
        {
          "year": 1928,
          "status": "locked",
          "opens_on": "2029-01-01"
        },
        {
          "year": 1929,
          "status": "locked",
          "opens_on": "2030-01-01"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "1930s",
      "label": "1930s",
      "range": "1930-1939",
      "status": "locked",
      "opens_on": "2031-01-01",
      "cap": 10,
      "selected": 0,
      "cohort_album_id": null,
      "note": "Opens one year at a time from January 1, 2031 through January 1, 2040."
    },
    {
      "id": "1940s",
      "label": "1940s",
      "range": "1940-1949",
      "status": "locked",
      "opens_on": "2041-01-01",
      "cap": 10,
      "selected": 0,
      "cohort_album_id": null,
      "note": "1940 through 1946 open January 2041 through January 2047. Then the schedule pauses ten years — 1947 does not open until January 2058."
    },
    {
      "id": "1950s",
      "label": "1950s",
      "range": "1950-1959",
      "status": "locked",
      "opens_on": "2061-01-01",
      "cap": 10,
      "selected": 0,
      "cohort_album_id": null,
      "note": "110-year term. 1950 opens January 2061; 1956 opens January 2067. Recordings from 1957 on are held until February 15, 2067."
    },
    {
      "id": "1960s",
      "label": "1960s",
      "range": "1960-1969",
      "status": "locked",
      "opens_on": "2067-02-15",
      "cap": 10,
      "selected": 0,
      "cohort_album_id": "pd-1960s-cohort",
      "note": "Held as a block until February 15, 2067. The 1960s cohort stays on clearance hold and off K-D-Y-N. Nothing ships until it clears."
    }
  ],
  "ingest_policy": {
    "gate": "PD Evaluator v1.0.0",
    "rule": "Every track ingested carries a PD Evaluator stamp — {status, basis, source_url, year, term} — before it may appear on any shelf, in the Vault Clock, or in a K-D-Y-N block. No stamp, no air.",
    "stamp_fields": [
      "status",
      "basis",
      "source_url",
      "year",
      "term",
      "evaluated_on",
      "evaluator",
      "usage_basis",
      "usable"
    ],
    "status_values": [
      "PD",
      "Protected",
      "Mixed"
    ],
    "mixed_rule": "A Mixed stamp — public-domain composition against a protected recording, or the reverse — must name each element and its own term. Mixed never publishes on the strength of the free element alone.",
    "clearance_rule": "usable is true only when usage_basis is public-domain, owned, or licensed. Everything else is held, including anything unstamped.",
    "schema": "data/schema/pd-evaluator.schema.json",
    "ingest_gate": "music/tools/pd_evaluate.py — validates every album and track, exits non-zero on any violation",
    "runtime_gate": "assets/js/music-catalog.js — drops uncleared tracks from albumTracks(), resolveBlock(), and isOnAirEligible()",
    "supersedes": "Replaces all prior per-track sampling limits. Volume is governed by curation_rule.cap_per_era; legality is governed here. The two are separate tests and a work must pass both."
  }
}