[Foundation-l] EU wants to increase musicians' and singers' copyright to 95 years

[David Monniaux]

The EU currently has two categories of copyright:
* The authors' rights, which elapse 70 years after the authors' death.
With respect to music, these applies to authors and composers.
* Performers' rights, which elapse 50 years after the recording.

Apparently, Charlie McCreevy, EU commissioner, would like to extend the
performers' copyright to 95 years after recording:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/14/business/EU-FIN-EU-Music-Royalties.php

He claims that there are nowadays many musicians who recorded music in
their twenties and now do not earn money anymore from them. I do not see
how this justifies 95 years, for few people live to 115 years...

He also claims this would not make the prices of records rise, because
the prices for records out-of-copyright with respect to performers'
rights are the same as those within copyright.

That may be true, however, his project would be a hindrance for
Wikimedia projects. We currently can hope to find old recordings of
classical music, which have fallen into the public domain. These would
be very hard to find with 95 year terms.

Let us all oppose this move.