[78-L] European Sound Recording Copyright Extension

[Kristjan Saag]

Composer/ lyricist/ arranger copyright is lifetime plus 70 years in the 
European Union and the US.
Radio stations both in the US and Europe pay royalties to composers/ 
lyricists (and/ or their publishers) - smaller stations usually pay a 
general fee; larger ones, like public radio stations, report all titles 
to property rights organizations in respective countries, who pay 
contributors according to that.
And, yes, Ellington's folks still collect royalties for Duke's 
compositions, whereas King Oliver has been dead 73 years, so I guess his 
estate has lost their revenue, unless there's another exception in the 
US copyright laws...
But this only applies to composer/ lyricist/ arranger rights - 
performance rights and master use rights are a different matter. And 
it's the master use rights (that protect recordings) that are under 
question in Europe at the moment.
To sum it up: until now it's been 100 per cent free to re-release a 
pre-1961 recording of a composition whose composr/lyricist/arranger has 
been dead for at least 70 years. Like a Toscanini recording of a Mozart 
work. Unless Hal David wrote the lyrics, which he probably didn't.
Kristjan


Han Enderman wrote 2011-09-15 17:56:
> I assume there are composer copyrights on many pre-1961 recordings.
> If such copyrights would end 70 years after a composer's death, there have to be
> royalties for any tune by a composer who died after 1940.
> Do radio stations or CD producers pay a general fee, or do they have to list all composers
> for the tunes played?
> I assume a Leadbelly recording of a folk song is totally free, as is Armstrong's 1928 recording
> of Joe Oliver's West End Blues, but how about playing an Armstrong recording of a
> Carmichael tune or Ellington playing his own compositions?
>
> han enderman
> ===
>>>> 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 wrote:

> 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
>
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