Music performers could see a big boost to their lifetime earnings under planned changes to music rights proposed by the European Commission.
The Commission wants to extend the copyright period for music performers from 50 years to 95 years.
British stars like Cliff Richard and Roger Daltrey have been pushing for such a move, but the UK government has resisted changing the rules.
The Commission says it will also benefit less well known musicians.
Musician's money
The European Union's internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy said that "copyright protection for Europe's performers represents a moral right to control the use of their work and earn a living from their performances".
"It is the performer who gives life to the composition and while most of us have no idea who wrote our favourite song, we can usually name the performer," he said.
The copyright for a song or piece of music, and the money that earns, is split into two parts.
Performance and sound recording rights usually go to the singer, band, musicians and technicians.
Publishing rights, which cover the lyrics and sheet music will either be owned by the writer, or a music label.
They last for the lifetime of the writer plus 70 years.
'No pensions'
Thursday's proposal was highly significant for the musicians and technicians "who only receive a small share of performance income from the exploitation of recordings for a limited period of time," said Lee Gage of lawyers Harbottle & Lewis.
He added that "session performers and other non-featured musicians" would especially benefit from the changes.
The Who singer Roger Daltrey, and Sir Cliff Richard are among the artists who have spoken out against the UK government's decision not to extend music copyright laws.
Mr Daltrey said thousands of artists had "no pensions and rely on royalties".
If you know your never getting a pension but make scads of money, put some aside. This isn't fucking rocket science and frankly I would have expected better from Daltrey. He was in one of the most successful bands in the world and he's worried about money? If he was dumb enough to waste it then fuck him.
M1891/30: A bad day on the range is better then a good day at work.
Once again the EU is going to fuck over the British public again...
Seriously? THAT'S the main issue you are going to pick up on? You're not going to try and come up with a stalwart reason as to WHY this is wrong? No, you're just going to jump on an anti-EU bandwagon. Cause you're a dick.
"Yeah, funny how that works - you giving hungry people food they vote for you. You give homeless people shelter they vote for you. You give the unemployed a job they vote for you.
Maybe if the conservative ideology put a roof overhead, food on the table, and employed the downtrodden the poor folk would be all for it, too". - Broomstick
The Guid wrote:
Seriously? THAT'S the main issue you are going to pick up on? You're not going to try and come up with a stalwart reason as to WHY this is wrong? No, you're just going to jump on an anti-EU bandwagon. Cause you're a dick.
Going off topic I have nothing against Europe, since many mainland Europeans dislike the EU as well, a bland administrative body passing potentially damaging laws and decrees without the real tacit approval of individual nations, but that is a rant for another thread.
But extending copyright for a much longer time than necessary is obviously wrong and does not really benefit society, especially when copyright was only intended to be temporary and ending up paying a record company's royalties for songs written by dead people is taking the piss. And constantly paying for music essentially embeded in the public domain for decades is as crazy and as exploitative as the policy of preventing people from collecting rainwater...
