[Upd-discuss] Proposal of the European Commission to extend the rights over airplays from 50 to 95 years

[Jérôme Borme]

Dear all,

I did not see this news in this mailing list, however the recent proposal of a 
European commissioner would have a significant negative effect on public 
domain.

On 14th of February, the European Commissioner for Internal marker and 
Services, Charlie McGreevy, proposed to nearly double the legal protection of 
performances, taking it to 95[1] years while it was 50.[2]

Commissioner McGreevy used two arguments to justify his proposal, fairness 
among artists and retirement subsidies for performance artists:[3]

«I have not seen or heard a convincing reason why a composer of music should 
benefit from a term of copyright which extends to the composer's life and 70 
years beyond, while the performer should only enjoy 50 years,» he said. The 
proposal of McGreevy would align the EU regulations on performances to the 
latest regulations in the United States[4], as emphasised by Paul McGuinness, 
manager of the group U2: «This is a proposal to give a fair deal to the next 
generation of music talent by giving new artists in Europe the same copyright 
term as their counterparts in the US.»[5]

McGreevy declares that «for session musicians and lesser known artists that 
means that their income stops when they are at a very vulnerable financial 
period of their lives – approaching retirement.» However, as noted by a 
blogger[6], this measurement would be more a gift to the few most successful 
artists who still sell copies 50 or 95 years after their original 
performance, than a way to promote and help poorly know artists. Definitive 
obscurity would fall on the less known performances, prevented from 
preventing their diffusion in public domain in the time duration where there 
still have a chance to regain popularity. Free distribution of old recordings 
could, on the opposite side, increase the visibility of elder performers and 
encourage new and higher quality performances by them of the same pieces of 
art.

Artistic creation would be further negatively impacted by this proposal, since 
it changes the repartition of income generated by music industry, moving part 
of the money from young or less known artists to a few more famous. The part 
of customer cultural budget which goes to pay royalties for old and already 
successful recordings would increase, decreasing the available part for other 
artists and performances.

The commissioner assures that this evolution should not have an effect on 
priced paid by the customer. The way main publishing groups welcomed this 
proposal[7] makes doubt of this statement, since it would prevent competition 
and allow publishers to arbitrary control the prices for more 45 years.

As for the background, commissioner McGreevy was also very much involved in 
the defunct proposal of the European commission to legalize software patents, 
between 2004 and 2006.[8]

I hope the Union for the Public Domain will take an active part in the debate.

[1] 
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/76&form=
at=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
[2] The duration of copyright terms in the EU was previously harmonized by a 
1999 Directive. See 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_on_harmonising_the_term_of_copyright=
_protection
[3] see the analysis done by Ars Technica, 
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080214-eu-commissioner-lets-extend-m=
usic-copyrights-to-95-years-ars-50-years-is-plenty.html
[4] An analysis and links to the original texts can be found at  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act
[5] As cited by The Independant, 15 February 2008, 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/eu-wants-standard-95year-co=
pyright-for-music-782651.html
[6] 
http://caveat.ouvaton.org/2008/02/16/qui-veut-la-peau-du-domaine-public-pou=
r-faire-plaisir-a-aznavour/
[7] The Guardian, 15 February 2008, 
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2256953,00.html
[8] http://wiki.ffii.org/CharlieMcCreevyEn