Honestly, it should have dropped into the public domain decades ago. The 'mickey mouse' copyright act, which is the one that did the 'life of the artist + 70 years', was only backdated 25 years. Which means 1951, I think, for implicit copyright.

This song was created in 1880. Everything _else_ published in 1880 has been in the public domain for decades :)

(Personally, I think that copyright needs to be pushed back to the original length. The purpose of copyright was for the creator to be paid for their work - not a corporation, nor their great great grandchildren - and then for the work to go into the public domain for the public good. That was fourteen years, at the time where it took 6 months for a book to go from one side of the country to the other, or across Europe. With current transportation and publishing, the 14 years of remuneration would probably be the equivalent of 3-5 years. Why have we, as a group, decided that performers don't need to perform to be paid? )