[78-L] E.U. just as corrupt as the U.S.

[Alan Bunting]

Dear Mr. Lennick,
 
Mr Bunting actually posted the first news of this development back on September 1st and was rather surprised that it produced not a single response.
 
The question of retrospection is a tricky one.  Some writers are using the term in the sense that recordings which are currently in copyright when the law is eventually passed will have it extended to 70 years (which will happen) and others, including myself, are using the term as meaning that recordings which are already out of copyright  will be brought back into copyright if they are less than 70 years old (which may happen).
 
To date no EU (as opposed to individual country) law has been retrospective as per my interpretation but the EU is a strange beast and, as I was told by the UK Intellectual Property Office 2 years ago, the final version of the proposal may make it retrospective.
 
We won't know until after the vote on 12th September and even then it may not be clear as much of the detail will have to be sorted out and each member country of the EU is allowed 2 years to ratify and implement the proposal. The only text of the proposal available to the public makes no specific mention of retrospection but there are a lot of other things it doesn't mention.
 
For me the biggest disaster is the fact that the original proposal had a "use it or lose it" clause which meant that if, at the end of the current 50 year period, the copyright holder didn't make the recording available for purchase by the public "in reasonable quantities" (whatever that meant) it automatically became Public Domain. Unfortunately one of the many sub-committees which modified the original proposal deleted this as well as a sensible means of allowing "orphan works" (works whose provenance could not be established) also to become PD at the end of the 50 year term.
 
More when I know more!
 
Alan Bunting
 

Not necessarily, although for our purposes that may be the case. But France 
>extended copyrights years ago for a number of composers because of a couple of 
>wars. And remember how "It's a Blunderful Life" came back into copyright 
>through some side door?
>
>I've also read that all EU countries have to ratify the terms within two years.
>
>Where's Mr. Bunting with all his bundles of information?
>
>dl
>
>On 9/9/2011 2:55 PM, Cary Ginell wrote:
>>
>> The Public Domain is a black hole. Nothing that enters it can escape. Once something is P.D., traditionally it has been P.D. forever.
>>
>