From 50 to 70 in 2 Years

Bill Jones, writing on the Copyright and Technology Blog, has a useful summary of the recent decision by the EU parliament to extend the copyright term for music recordings from 50 years to 70 years.

To ensure that performers benefit fully from the additional royalties thanks to the copyright extension, MEPs amended the original text to prevent the use of previous contractual agreements to deduct money from the additional royalties.

Also included in the legislation is a dedicated fund for session musicians. This fund will be financed by contributions from producers, who will be obliged to set aside at least 20% of the revenues gained from the proposed extension of copyright term. The fund will reward session musicians who gave up their rights when signing the contract for their performance. Collecting societies, which represent performers' and producers' interests, will retain the right to administer the annual supplementary remuneration.

Member States will have two years to incorporate the new legislation in their respective countries.

The Parliament also asked the Commission to launch an impact assessment of the situation in the European audiovisual sector by January 2010, with a view to deciding whether a similar copyright extension would benefit the audiovisual world.