Latest News

European Parliament votes in favour of extending Copyright Term for musicians to 70 Years

23 April 2009

Under current EU laws, recorded musical performances are protected for a maximum of 50 years. This means that over a period of 50 years, performers receive remuneration for each time their work is played on the air. After 50 years, artists lose control over the use of their works and no longer receive this income. Composers already enjoy copyright protection for 70 years after their death. The European Parliament voted on 23 April in favour of a compromise proposal to extend the term of protection for performers from 50 years to 70 years. The original proposal from the European Commission was to extend to 95 years.

A fund for session musicians
The increased copyright protection would also benefit producers, thanks to additional revenues deriving from the extension. A dedicated fund for session musicians would be financed by contributions from producers, who would be obliged to set aside for this purpose, at least once a year, at least 20% of the revenues gained (this percentage was quite debated) from the proposed extension of copyright term. This fund will reward those session musicians who gave up their rights when signing the contract for their performance. MEPs amended a provision relating to this fund so as to give collecting societies, which represent performers' and producers' interests, the right to administer the annual supplementary remuneration.

"Clean slate" clause to ensure extension benefits performers
To ensure that performers fully enjoy the additional royalties deriving from copyright extension, MEPs amended the original text so as to prevent the use of previous contractual agreements to deduct money from the additional royalties.

Possibility to renegotiate contracts
An amendment approved by MEPs allows performers to renegotiate the contracts concluded before the entry into force of this legislation, 50 years after the first publication of their recording.

Copyright extension for audiovisual works
The Parliament has 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.

"Use it or lose it" clause
According to the approved legislation, if producers, 50 years after the publication of a phonogram, do not make it available to the public, performers can ask to terminate the contract they signed to transfer their rights to the label. The producer has one year to make the recording available to the public; failing this his rights will expire.

Review legislation after three years
MEPs asked the Commission to submit three years after the entry into force of the new legislation an assessment of its application with particular regard to the digital market. Member States will have two years to transpose the new legislation.

Harmonisation calculation term of protection of co-written Music Works
The MEPs also voted in favour for a harmonised way of calculating the term of protection of a musical composition with words, being 70 years after the death of the last of the following persons to survive, whether or not these persons are designated as co-authors: the author of the lyrics and the composer of the musical composition. The European Parliament has clarified that it should concern contributions which were specifically created for the respective musical composition with words. So in other words the additional wording emphasises that harmonisation is limited to lyrics and music created for use together. For example, putting an old poem to music does not mean this poem is protected anew simply because it is part of a new song.

NEXT STEPS
The text now goes to first reading to the Council. The main question is whether the Council could agree with the compromise proposal from the European Parliament, a compromise which has also been tabled by the UK in the working group on copyright, but which is still stopped by a blocking minority of 10 Member States.

Latest News

European Parliament votes in favour of extending Copyright Term for musicians to 70 Years

Other News Stories