Directive 2011/77/EU on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights amended
Directive 2006/116/EC
Directive may refer to:
* Directive (European Union), a legislative act of the European Union
* Directive (programming), a computer language construct that specifies how a compiler should process input
* Directive (poem), "Directive" (poem), a poem ...
and extended copyright terms of recordings from 50 to 70 years. It was passed by the
Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...
on 12 September 2011 after the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
passed it on 23 April 2009 establishing a term of 70 years, lower than the 95 years the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
had proposed on 16 July 2008.
Purpose of the extension
The stated purpose of the extension of the recording
copyright term
The copyright term is the length of time copyright subsists in a work before it passes into the public domain. In most of the world, this length of time is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years.
Length of copyright
Copyright subsists f ...
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 and against
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 £34.9
million in present value terms over the next ten years. 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.
The Gowers review of Intellectual Property stated that "is not clear that extension of term would benefit musicians and performers very much in practice." An article written by Dutch academics and published in the European Intellectual Property Review, ''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.
[{{cite web , url=http://www.ivir.nl/publications/helberger/EIPR_2008_5.pdf , title=Never Forever: Why Extending the Term of Protection for Sound Recording is a Bad Idea , first1=Natali , last1=Helberger , first2=Nicole , last2=Dufft , first3=Stef , last3=Van Gompel , first4=Bernt , last4=Hugenholtz , publisher=Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam , access-date=2009-12-31 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090725152841/http://www.ivir.nl/publications/helberger/EIPR_2008_5.pdf , archive-date=2009-07-25 , url-status=dead ]
See also
*
Copyright Term Extension Act
The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act – also known as the Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or (derisively) the Mickey Mouse Protection Act – extended copyright terms in the United States in 1998. It is one of several a ...
(United States)
References
External links
EC Term of Protection PageDirective 2011/77/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2011 amending Directive 2006/116/EC on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rightsProcedure : 2008/0157(COD)Music copyright to be extended to 70 years for performers
Directive in the news:
British Recorded Music Industry statement
BBC News articles on proposed extension.
Slashdot Article
Arstechnica Article
Out-law.com: Special Reports Sign in to my account Topics Intellectual Property European Commission proposes copyright extension Directive
* http://kluwercopyrightblog.com/2011/04/06/o-no-not-again-term-extension/
Copyright law of the European Union
2008 in the European Union
2009 in the European Union