[Commons-l] EDRI-gram newsletter : UK House of Commons culture committee wants copyright extension

[Yann Forget]

Hello,

It seems that concerns us.

Regards,

Yann

-------- Message original --------
Sujet: EDRI-gram newsletter - Number 5.10, 23 May 2007
Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 20:44:11 +0300
De: EDRI-gram newsletter <edrigram at edri.org>
Pour: <edri-news at edri.org>

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           EDRI-gram

biweekly newsletter about digital civil rights in Europe

    Number 5.10, 23 May 2007


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Contents
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1. US official makes PNR demands to the European Parliament
2. UK implements the Data Retention Directive
3. Google is profiling online gamers
4. UK House of Commons culture committee wants copyright extension
5. The Italian Big Brother Awards for 2007
6. Bulgarian actions against online piracy - "collateral damage"
7. Opennet Initiative publishes alarming results on Internet filtering
8. OECD finds the real piracy losses
9. International Declaration on G8 and Intellectual Property launched
10. Romanian open source community gets together
11. Polish people arrested for publishing movie translations
12. Recommended Reading
13. Agenda
14. About

(...)
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4. UK House of Commons culture committee wants copyright extension
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The copyright term for sound recordings is back on the public agenda in
UK, after a report from the House of Commons culture committee has
recommended its extension from 50 to 70 years, despite the negative
feedback received earlier from Andrew Gowers' report or a recent study
commissioned by the European Union and made public in January 2007.

The Culture committee report considered that the musicians have a "moral
right" to keep control of their creations while alive and that 7000
people will lose in the next years their royalties from the 50s and 60s
recordings.
Also the report considered there was a non-reasonable difference between
the copyright term for songwriters, whose families keep the copyright 70
years after the  death of the author and the 50-year rule for sound
recordings.

"We recommend that the government should press the European Commission
to bring forward proposals for an extension of copyright term for sound
recordings to at least 70 years.", concluded the report.

77 UK MPs have signed a parliamentary motion calling for this extension.
EDRi-member ORG has publicly opposed the change asking from the people
to remind the politicians to debate this issue on the basis of evidence
- which points firmly against extension - rather than nostalgia.

The decision of the UK MPs is opposite to Andrew Gowers' report, backed
by the Treasury, that recommended not to extend the copyright term for
sound recordings.

Moreover, Gowers exclusively revealed to Out-Law Radio last month that,
far from leaning towards extension, he almost recommended shortening the
term of copyright:

"I could have made a case for reducing it based on the economic
arguments," he said. "We certainly considered it, and if you look at the
report that came from the academics that we commissioned to examine the
arguments and examine the evidence they also argued very robustly that
50 years could be arguably more than enough."

Copyright extension back on Commons' agenda (16.05.2007)
http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=8053

Music stars 'must keep copyright' (17.05.2007)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6661283.stm

Copyright extension: Seems our MPs haven't been doing their homework
(14.05.2007)
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2007/05/14/copyright-extension-seems-our-mps-havent-been-doing-their-homework/

EDRI-gram: Copyright extension term rejected by EU commissioned report
(17.01.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.1/copyright_term


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