On Fri, 2008-02-15 at 11:21 +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
Can anyone tell us whether we should act on Bands set for longer music rights http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7244928.stm and how/where?
We should; if only to set the tone for copyright in general.
The UK Gowers Review is a powerful weapon in this regard: he looked specifically at the effects of an extension of copyright, and found that the argument in favour of it was very weak. This article is a reasonable summary:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061127-8291.html
I would be entirely unsurprised if the BPI, having lost the argument in the UK, is one of those pushing hard at EU level. Indeed, when it's been discussed in Parliament, gems like:
"At the same time, will they consider the recommendation made in an important article in the Financial Times: that authors who seek an extension by 50 years of the copyright in their works should have to apply for a licence to do so, so that they could be shamed when they made such a monstrous application?" (Lord Lester)
.. come up time and again. However, they're still fighting in Parliament on this issue - Pete Wishart put forward a private member's bill to extend copyright, which is getting its second reading in March. I doubt very much it stands any chance of succeeding, but perhaps getting people to put pressure on their MPs to resist this would be a useful task in the UK - it would help raise awareness of the issue which could then be transferred to the EU.
It's bloody commissioner Charlie McCreevy out to expand copyright again.
Yeah. His track record in general is pretty unimpressive.
Cheers,
Alex.