European Union 95 year recording copyright extension proposal
Encyclopedia
The European Union Commission has proposed on 16 July 2008 to extend the length of the copyright on recordings to 95 years from 50 years. The European Parliament modified the proposal to be 70 years instead and passed it on 23 April 2009. The remaining step to this becoming law is approval by the Council of Ministers
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is to "bring performers' protection more in line with that already given to authors - 70 years after their death." The term in Directive 2006/116/EC is 50 years after publishing the performance, or 50 years after the performance if it is not published.
million in present value terms over the next ten year. It also suggested that there would "prices of in-copyright and out-of-copyright sound recordings are not significantly different" so that consumers would not be impacted.
A report commissioned by the European Commission, Never Forever: Why Extending the Term of Protection for Sound Recording is a Bad Idea, concluded that the arguments for copyright extension were not convincing.
Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union is the institution in the legislature of the European Union representing the executives of member states, the other legislative body being the European Parliament. The Council is composed of twenty-seven national ministers...
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Purpose of the extension
The stated purpose of the extension of the recording copyright termCopyright term
Copyright term is the length of time copyright subsists in a work before it passes into the public domain.- Length of copyright:Copyright subsists for a variety of lengths in different jurisdictions. The length of the term can depend on several factors, including the type of work Copyright term is...
is to "bring performers' protection more in line with that already given to authors - 70 years after their death." The term in Directive 2006/116/EC is 50 years after publishing the performance, or 50 years after the performance if it is not published.
Argument for the proposal
The Impact of Copyright Extension for Sound Recordings in the UK (cited by the European Commission) suggested that the extension to 95 years would increase revenue by £2.2 million to £34.9million in present value terms over the next ten year. It also suggested that there would "prices of in-copyright and out-of-copyright sound recordings are not significantly different" so that consumers would not be impacted.
Argument against the proposal
The Gowers review of Intellectual Property stated that "is not clear that extension of term would benefit musicians and performers very much in practice."A report commissioned by the European Commission, Never Forever: Why Extending the Term of Protection for Sound Recording is a Bad Idea, concluded that the arguments for copyright extension were not convincing.
External links
- Term of Protection Page
- Proposed Text
- British Recorded Music Industry statement
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7244928.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3547788.stm BBC News articles on proposed extension.
- Slashdot Article
- Arstechnica Article
- http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2009-0282+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN
- http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+IM-PRESS+20090422IPR54191+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
- http://www.out-law.com/page-9269
- http://kluwercopyrightblog.com/2011/04/06/o-no-not-again-term-extension/