Copyright Term Extension

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[edit] Introduction

The Open Rights Group campaigned against proposals for copyright term extension in the 2nd half of 2006. Our efforts culminated with publication of the Treasury-sponsored and Government-endorsed Gowers Review of Intellectual Property, which recommended against extending the length protection for sound recordings and performer's rights. Gowers was soon followed by another report - commissioned by the European Commission - which pronounced against the proposals in even stronger terms. These were significant victories, but the issue remains a live one, and one that will ultimately be decided by the EU legislature.

Term extension is back on the news agenda in May 2007 due to an Early Day Motion in Parliament and a report by the Commons Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, driven no doubt by the same 'music industry' groups who previously drove the isse. This page contains links to related press and documents. We hope to encourage activism against copyright term extension, but also to offer a balanced perspective. Watch the blog for opportunities to engage with our campaign.

[edit] Release the Music

Our Release the Music campaign involved two main elements; a briefing pack and a public debate. We recommend reading the briefing pack together with its references. If you prefer to learn by video, then check the recordings of our public debate. The first part is a fantastic lecture by Prof Jonathan Zittrain, which explains this and other aspects of copyright reform in clear and simple (i.e. non-legal!) terms. The second is a panel debate, featuring representatives from the music industry as well as an academic and recording artist. You can also access audio archives of that evening.


[edit] Sound Copyright

We are now developing a new EU-wide petition site, called Sound Copyright. We need help translating the contents. - thanks to everyone who helped translate the contents!

[edit] Documents

[edit] News

2008-02-15 - The Times - New lease of life for ageing rock stars
Author: Dan Sabbagh
Summary: Now the European Commission has struck a chord with the rock dinosaurs and their music companies by proposing that the rights for recorded music be extended from 50 to 95 years. ... Critics said that extending copyright would benefit only a few artists. Becky Hogge, from the campaign group Open Rights Forum, said: "A handful of artists will get most of the rewards, and it is not clear this will benefit the economy."
2007-05-18 - New Statesman - Pity poor Cliff
Author: Sian Berry
Summary: It’s hard to feel sorry for Sirs Cliff Richard and Paul McCartney, and very easy to dismiss the call this week for copyright on music recordings to be extended from 50 years to 95 or even 'life plus 70 years'. The poor things have been at it for so long that their early recordings are starting to fall out of copyright, which means they will soon begin to miss out on some royalties. ... Early Day Motion ... House of Commons Culture Committee ... The Open Rights Group, who are opposed to the abuse of digital rights and campaign for copyright reform and greater access to knowledge, has detailed how most innovation in the UK music scene comes from independent labels that are not dependent on long-ago hits, and that only a tiny minority of artists receive the bulk of royalties. Less than half a percent of artists receive anything that could be called a ‘pension’ and most receive nothing at all beyond their original advance. In reality, it is only the record companies who are making money, as they take their accumulated share of royalty payments from the large catalogues they control.
2007-05-17 - Washington Post - The Sound of Copy Restrictions Crashing
Author: Rob Pegoraro
Summary: Amazon said yesterday that it would open an online store that only stocks MP3 music files without copying restrictions....But when the biggest music download store, one of the biggest CD retailers and a Big Four record label think they should drop that approach, it means things have changed drastically.
2007-05-16 - The Register - MPs cosy up with Sir Cliff on copyright term
Author: Chris Williams
Summary: A report released today by the Commons Culture, Media, and Sport Select Committee attempts to torpedo the recommendations of last year's wide-ranging intellectual property report for the Treasury by Andrew Gowers, the former editor of the Financial Times. ... Releasing its counter arguments in "New Media and the Creative Industries", the select committee said Gowers had failed to give proper weight to the "moral right" of Sir Cliff to retain ownership of his 1958 performance on Move It. The committee is chaired by Conservative John Whittingdale, who has acted as a spokesman for record industry trade body the BPI in the past on its battle with digital music trends. ... The parliamentary moves to reanimate the debate have drawn consternation from the Open Rights Group, among others. It has a list of the MPs who have signed the motion here.
2007-05-16 - BBC - Music stars 'must keep copyright'
Summary: UK copyright laws should be extended to prevent musicians from missing out on royalties in later life, MPs have said. Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Cliff Richard are among the artists who will see the current 50-year limit on their early sound recordings expire soon. The House of Commons culture committee said people had a "moral right" to keep control of their creations while alive. The copyright term for sound recordings should be extended to at least 70 years, the committee recommended.
2007-05-16 - The Guardian - MPs come to the defence of Cliff Richard's copyright
Author: Paul MacInnes
Summary: With many 50s artists on the brink of losing their right to royalties, a Commons committee has recommended that musicians get at least an extra 20 years of revenue from their recordings. After doing their best to let the British public know they have the Arctic Monkeys on their iPods, MPs have today shown their commitment to the other end of the music spectrum, leaping to the defence of Cliff Richard's copyright
2007-05-15 - PC Pro - 75 MPs back copyright extension motion
Author: Simon Aughton
Summary: Seventy-five MPs have signed a parliamentary motion calling for an extension of the lifetime of copyright on sound recordings. ... An EU report subsequently agreed with Gowers that the 50-year term was sufficient, arguing that any extension would 'strengthen and prolong' the major record companies dominance of the market 'to the detriment of competition'. ... Connarty disagrees, arguing that it is low-earning musicians who lose out. ... The Open Rights Group disagrees, saying that certain politicians 'appear to be neglecting their IP studies'.
2007-04-30 - ars technica - Gowers: I took the "politically prudent" course on copyright in IP report
Author: Nate Anderson
Summary: Andrew Gowers, former head of the Financial Times, led a UK inquiry into intellectual property rights last year and concluded (among many other things) that musical copyrights should not be extended from their current 50-year length to 95 years. Now, in an interview, Gowers says that the economic data he saw even supported reducing the 50 year term, but that political realities prevented him from recommending this.
2006-11-27 - The Guardian - Music business fights the 50-year rule
Author: Owen Gibson
Summary: The British music industry today launched a last-ditch appeal to head off the findings of an upcoming review expected to reject their pleas to extend the copyright period on sound recordings. ... The Open Rights Group, which has argued alongside the British Library and artists such as Blur's Dave Rowntree that the current status quo provides the best balance between compensation and freedom of expression, said it was "encouraged and delighted by the news".
2006-11-27 - Sunday Telegraph - Music industry loses copyright fight
Author: Dan Roberts
Summary: The record industry has lost its battle to extend copyright protection for ageing pop stars after a long-awaited Treasury review concluded it would do little to encourage new creativity.
2006-11-26 - BBC - No copyright extension for songs
Summary: The copyright on sound recordings will not be extended after an independent review commissioned by the Treasury.
2006-11-16 - Financial Times - Breaking the deal
Author: James Boyle
Summary: The copyright term for sound recordings in the UK is 50 years. (It is longer for compositions.) Obviously, 50 years of legalised exclusivity was enough of an incentive to get them to make the music in the first place. Now they want to change the terms of the deal retrospectively.
2006-06-21 - openDemocracy - Should artists know better? – the British copyright experience
Author: Rosemary Bechler
Summary: Cliff Richard hit the headlines with his campaign to extend the number of years in which British performers can expect to receive royalties for their recordings. Under current UK law, songwriters obtain royalties for their work for their lifetime plus seventy years, whereas performers can only expect payment for fifty years. In the US, copyright was extended ...
2006-05-12 - BBC - Half of UK 'infringing copyright'
Summary: National Consumer Council's Jill Johnstone "The current campaign to extend copyright terms for sound recordings beyond 50 years has no justification," "Evidence shows music companies generally make returns on material in a matter of years, not decades." "Current terms already provide excessive protection of intellectual property rights at a cost to consumers."
2006-05-03 - Times - Free the Beatles' walrus
Author: Gervase Markham
Summary: There's no need to extend the duration of the copyright monopoly... So basically, copyright is a bargain between a creative person and the public. The public, via their elected representatives, say: "We will make a law which gives you a monopoly, for a limited time, on copying some creative work you have made. This financially enables you to create more works without needing a wealthy patron. And it gives us those works to enjoy, and eventually all the rights to them we would have in absence of the law."
2006-04-30 - The Sunday Times Ireland - Royalties about to dry up for showband stars
Author: Kate Butler and Jan Battles
Summary: Performance royalties have a term of 50 years, but a campaign to extend it has been joined by industry heavyweights such as Paul McGuinness, manager of U2, who are concerned that short copyright term leaves recordings vulnerable to pirating.
2006-02-17 - BBC - Copyright sings to a different tune
Author: Kay Withers
Summary: It is what is sometimes called the Goldilocks problem - the need to provide copyright protection at a level that is not too much, not too little, but just right. An independent review team in the Treasury is now considering these problems and will report in autumn this year. The majority of works produced in the 50s and 60s are no longer of any commercial value. Many are out of circulation and unavailable to would be listeners.If you walk into a bookshop you can buy a copy of Dickens' Bleak House, or Austen's Pride and Prejudice for about £1.50. The copyright in these works has long expired so different publishers can compete to offer them at lower prices. Consumers have benefited from the works being out of protection. So perhaps the expiration of copyright in sound recordings for the Beatles should not be seen as the end of music. Instead it could be the end of an era, perhaps.
2005-10-17 - BBC - Copyright for the digital age
Author: Bill Thompson
Summary: Mr Gil can be relied on to understand why the law should "ensure both the sharing of knowledge and the rewarding of innovation". As for Mr Purnell, the RSA's charter is pretty short, at just under 450 words, and fits nicely on a single side of A4 paper so it will not fill his ministerial red box. If he reads it carefully, he will have some intellectual ammunition to use against the representatives of the music industry who are currently lobbying hard for an extension of the copyright term on recordings, which currently stands at only 50 years.
2005-09-29 - SHOULD THE TERM OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION BE EXTENDED OR SHORTENED IN THE UK?
Summary: The seminar, organised jointly by the ippr (Institute for Public Policy Research), PCMLP (Programme for Comparative Media Law and Policy at Oxford University) and the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts etc), Speakers: Professor Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law, Stanford, John McVay, Chief Executive, Pact, Adam Singer, CEO, MCPS-PRS Alliance. Chair: John Howkins, RSA
2005-06-17 - The Times - Copyright wrongs: we can't let the music industry suits stifle creativity
Author: David Rowan
Summary: Mr Purnell, who is in charge of our “creative industries”, believes that we, too, need to “modernise our intellectual property framework” along similar lines. Following a music industry campaign to extend the copyright term for sound recordings from 50 to 95 years, he has been rapping in rhythm with the EMI and BMG massive: in a risky, talent-driven business like pop, the suits, apparently, need guarantees of long-term financial returns. As he told the Institute for Public Policy Research yesterday, the record labels need copyright reforms “that will allow them to make returns on their creativity and to invest in innovation”. What he failed to explain was the damage that such a short-term corporate grab would do to the public good.
2005-06-16 - Department for culture, media and sport -
Author: James Purnell, Minister for Creative Industries
Summary: James Purnell, Minister for Creative Industries, keynote speech to IPPR event, London "....Third, we need to modernise our intellectual property framework, and in places it may need to be strengthened. IP is the bedrock of the creative economy. The Labour Manifesto committed us to modernise copyright and other forms of protection of intellectual property rights so that they are appropriate for the digital age."
2005-06-05 - The Sunday Times - Plan to extend copyright on pop classics
Author: Andrew Porter, Deputy Political Editor
Summary: Britain's super-rich rock veterans are about to get even richer. The government wants to extend copyright laws to ensure pop songs are protected for almost twice as long as the current 50 years
2005-02-18 - BBC - The copyright 'copyfight' is on
Author: Bill Thompson
Summary: In legal terms, the basic argument is between those who see creative works as just another type of property, with what are increasingly presented as inalienable property rights, and those who see copyright as a deal struck with creative people by the state, one which is intended to benefit both sides. Copyright history supports the second view, but since the mid-1970's there has been increasing legal support for the first.
2004-08-10 - BBC - Head to head: Music copyright
Summary: With the first wave of rock 'n' roll recordings - starting with Elvis Presley - about to go out of copyright in Europe, the UK music industry wants the current 50-year time limit extended. But would this also be good news for fans? Both sides of the argument are put forward below.
2004-07-26 - BBC - Music bosses head royalties fight
Summary: A campaign is under way to protect music copyrights due to expire on 50-year-old records by Elvis Presley and other rock legends. Copies of 50-year-old songs can be issued in Europe without the need for payments to copyright owners. 1 January 2005 this could affect records by Chuck Berry, James Brown - and by 2013, The Beatles.
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