EU to Extend Music Copyright to 95 Years
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The IFPI and mediocre artists around the world are rubbing their hands in glee, after a proposal to extend copyright in the EU for another 45 years. The proposal, intended to ‘benefit musicians’, comes up for a vote on Wednesday. On the plus side, at the same time collecting societies are going to have their practices scrutinized. The proposal by Irish EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy, currently serving as European Commissioner for Internal Market & Services, was first proposed back in February. It aims to extend copyright protection for performing artists from 50 years to 95. The proposal is supposed to secure the pensions of long forgotten
artists. In a statement, McCreevy said “I am not talking about featured
artists like Cliff Richard or Charles Aznavour. I am talking about the
thousands of anonymous session musicians who contributed to sound
recordings in the late fifties and sixties. They will no longer get
airplay royalties from their recordings. But these royalties are often
their sole pension.” [read more @ TorrentFreak]
