[78-L] European Sound Recording Copyright Extension

[Kristjan Saag]

On 13/09/2011, Alan Bunting wrote:
>> The law (when eventually implemented) will NOT be retrospective so Mr.
>> Lennick and I can continue to supplement our meagre incomes with a few
>> more transfers and restorations. Â
>> Alan Bunting
>> Â
>> Here's the offical answer from the UK Intellectual Property Office: Â
>> In response to your query, the directive provides that the extended
>> term for sound recordings and performers' rights (i.e. the 70 year
>> period) applies to fixation of performances and phonograms which are
>> still protected by the term directive on the date the amending
>> directive must be transposed and any such fixations created
>> subsequently. So the directive extends copyright/performers' rights
>> protections for works where the rights are still in force on the
>> transposition date in the directive but it does not revive copyright.
Don Cox wrote:

> That is a relief.
>
> Really, most of the material that the owners neglect and that is worth
> reissuing dates from before 1962.
>
--
I agree,
And I forwarded the UK Intellectual Property Office reply to my boss 
(head of Swedish Radio's music channel) who, in an interview a few days 
ago, falsely interpreted the EU decision as putting all recordings 
between 1961 and 1941 under copyright, thereby creating difficulties for 
the channel to play Jussi Bjoerling and other stuff of the period.
For me, producing and hosting a programme with perhaps 75 per cent 
pre-1960's music, mostly popular and jazz, the copyright extension means 
very little. And European radio stations can continue to play as much as 
they like from the 78 rpm era, but will have to be careful with all 
recordings from 1964 or so, depending on when the EU decision is 
ratified and the law becomes active.
The thing is: in Europe radio stations pay for performance rights. In 
order to minimize the cost for these many public radio stations, like 
BBC, NRK, DR, SR, WDR, BR, Deutsche Welle etc., use unprotected 
recordings or their own live recordings to fill the play lists. The 
unprotected recordings are rarely old ones, having passed into PD, but 
modern US productions. The bizarre logic here is: US radio stations 
don't pay royalties to record companies and artists, so why should we...
Kristjan