My Boy Lollipop

The sound recording of "My Boy Lollipop" by Barbie Gaye, despite the information provided about its release date, appears to have an incorrect fixation year in your query. The iconic version by Barbie Gaye was actually recorded and released in 1956, not 1997. The rule engine's determination of 'PROTECTED' is based on the assumption that the recording was fixed in 1997, which would indeed place it under standard federal copyright law as per 17 U.S.C. § 1401(a)(2)(A)(i). Given a 1997 fixation, the recording would be treated as a post-February 15, 1972 sound recording, thus falling under federal copyright protection for a term of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter, for works made for hire, or life of the author plus 70 years for individual authors. This means it would remain protected well into the 21st century. However, it's crucial to clarify that the *original* Barbie Gaye 1956 recording of "My Boy Lollipop" would be subject to state law protection under the Music Modernization Act (MMA), specifically 17 U.S.C. § 1401(a)(2)(B). For recordings fixed between 1923 and 1946, the MMA grants a term of 100 years. If the recording by Barbie Gaye were genuinely from 1997, as stated in the prompt, it would be protected under the standard federal term applied to post-1972 works. This analysis, therefore, proceeds based on the *provided* 1997 fixation date for the purpose of explaining the rule engine's output, while acknowledging the likely factual error in that date.