Tom Lehrer in the Public Domain

Tom Lehrer is putting all his songs and lyrics, as well as performing, recording and translation rights, into the public domain, according to a statement dated 1 November 2022 on his website. “In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs,” he writes. “So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.” Everything is available to download from his website: songs from his albums as MP3s, and lyrics and sheet music as PDFs (in case being able to play “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” was a life goal of yours—and really, why isn’t it, if it isn’t?). But Lehrer notes that the site will be shut down “in the not too distant future, so if you want to download anything, don’t wait too long.”