RE: NEWS: Audio Covered by Copyright Laws That Differ Widely in Duration Between the U.S. and Europe

The story accurately reported that in Europe the duration of copyrignt in sound recordings is 50 years, but seemed to imply that the music as a whole will go into the public domain. This is not true; the duration of copyright in the musical works is life plus 70. It will still be an infringement, in Europe as much as the US, to copy these recordings; but the copying will infringe the composer's copyright in the musical work, not the copyright in the sound recording.

It also correctly, but irrelevantly, reported that implementation of the latest Directive is not yet universal in the EU. However, the issue at stake here is duration, and duration was harmonised across the EU in at life plus 70 for literary, musical etc works and 50 years fixed for sound recording by a 1993 Directive which has long been implemented in all Member States.
..

Edward Barrow
New Media Copyright Consultant
http://www.copyweb.co.uk/
***Important: see http://www.copyweb.co.uk/email.htm for information about the legal status of this email ***

On Sunday, January 12, 2003 7:16 AM, David P. Dillard [SMTP:jwne[_at_]astro.ocis.temple.edu] wrote:
>
>
> In Europe which has a fifty rather than ninety-five year span of
copyright
> protection, music from the fifties is now public domain.
>
> Same old song, different meaning for P2P
> By John Borland
> Staff Writer, CNET News.com
> January 7, 2003, 12:49 PM PT
> <http://news.com.com/2100-1023-979532.html?tag=lh>
>
> A difference between American and European copyright law threatens to
> carve out a free-swapping zone for popular decades-old music, hampering
> record companies' antipiracy efforts online.
>
> European and Canadian copyright protections for sound recordings last
just
> 50 years, compared with 95 years in the United States. As reported
earlier
> in The New York Times, that means that a boomlet in sales of bootlegs of
> 1950s artists, ranging from Miles Davis to Elvis Presley, is becoming
> perfectly legal.
>
> <snip>
>
>
> But the industry is on the watch for people creating archives of material
> that is in the public domain in one country but still illegal to trade
> freely in the United States. If a Web-based service comes online, it
might
> be possible to block access to the site from the United States by going
> through ISPs, Turkewitz said.
>
> <snip>
>
> It would be more difficult to block access to people offering songs via
> peer-to-peer services, however.
>
> -----------------------
>
> Full story may be read at the URL above.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> David Dillard
> Temple University
> (215) 204 - 4584
> jwne[_at_]astro.temple.edu
Received on Tue Jan 14 2003 - 09:15:34 GMT