EU pushing for longer royalty windows

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EU pushing for longer royalty windows

European Union Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has said that singers and musicians should earn royalty fees for a longer period of time. McCreevy suggested that the artists should receive royalties for 95 years, nearly double the current 50-year limit, and on par with the royalty period for U.S. artists. “If nothing is done, thousands of European performers who recorded in the late 1950s and 1960s will lose all of their airplay royalties over the next ten years,” said McCreevy, the union’s internal market chief. “These royalties are often their sole pension.” McCreevy also said that the group wants to again look at reforming copyright levies charged on blank discs, data storage, and portable media players. 19 of the EU’s 25 nations charge copyright levies, including Finland, France, and Germany.

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Comments

1

Artists and songwriters, and producers and everyone in between, should get royalties for the rest of their lives.

If they aren’t paid, all the money is going to a record company. Do the people who decide what to sell deserve to keep all of the money?

Posted by Eric on February 14, 2008 at 7:54 PM (PDT)

2

Why don’t they make more music instead of getting fat on something they did over 50 years ago? I don’t really want the record companies ot get fat either but serious some people need to get a job.

Posted by Chris Matchett in London on February 15, 2008 at 12:55 AM (PDT)

3

Note that this is performers only, not songwriters, or record labels. There is a strange thing in Europe where performances have different copyrights than the rights on the actual music.

“Getting fat”? I think there are many musicians who get royalties from old performances who are neither fat nor rich, and this can make a big difference to them. Again, the record companies are not getting this money.

Kirk

Posted by Kirk on February 15, 2008 at 1:40 AM (PDT)

4

Spin, plain and simple. They’re just re-framing the old argument about copyright extensions. Unless my understanding of EU copyright law is severely flawed, all the music in question will simply go into the public domain. Thus, no one can collect money on it.

Posted by Laer on February 17, 2008 at 1:22 PM (PDT)

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