U.K. Won’t Lobby EU for Longer Copyright Term for Sound Recordings
The U.K. won’t support a music industry push for longer copyright protection for sound recordings. Responding this week to a parliamentary committee recommendation that the European Commission extend protection to at least 70 years, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport sided with last year’s Gower Review on intellectual property. That Treasury Department report opposed an extension, saying it would hurt most performers, harm the trade balance and boost industry and consumer costs. The labels promised to fight on.
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Gowers’ analysis may be economically correct, but it seems ignore the moral rights of creators to retain ownership and control of IP, lawmakers said in a May report on new media and the creative industries. Composers and their heirs get a copyright term running a lifetime and beyond, but performers don’t, they said. They urged the government to lobby the commission for changes.
The culture department said Gowers weighed all perspectives, including moral arguments on the treatment of performers, and concluded that most wouldn’t benefit from a term extension because their contracts require royalties to be paid back to record labels. Gowers said an extension would raise costs among businesses using music, such as broadcasters and restaurants, and force consumers to pay more royalties, the department said. The review noted that the U.S. term runs longer, but concluded that “although royalties were payable for longer there, the total amount was likely to be similar -- or possibly less -- as there were fewer revenue streams available under the U.S. system,” the government said.
A commission inquiry into the copyright term reached the same overall conclusions Gower did, the department said. Given the findings of the reports, which carefully considered a term extension’s effect on the economy, and “without further substantive evidence to the contrary, it does not seem appropriate for the Government to press the Commission for action at this state,” the department said.
The industry accused the government of failing to support British musicians, performers and consumers. The industry will continue to make the strong case for fair copyright in Europe, said British Phonographic Industry (BPI) Chief Executive Geoff Taylor, but “it is profoundly disappointing that we are forced to do so without the backing of the British government.”
Other Recommendations Backed
Other copyright actions raised in the committee report won the department’s support. Lawmakers recommended that the government create an exception to let consumers make copies for use at home and on portable devices such as MP3 players, but not to transmit elsewhere. The government will consult this fall on whether to introduce a limited format-shifting exception for personal use, it said.
The department agreed with Gowers and Parliament that no levies should be imposed on copy-capable equipment to compensate rights-holders for private copying. Some EU countries have levy systems, but consumers shouldn’t be forced to pay more for items that may never be used for copying copyrighted works, it said.
Digital rights management may bruise consumer trust, but there should not be a rush to regulate such systems, the committee said. DCMS agreed, saying DRM use is still at an early stage and the market should be allowed to “sort this out for itself.” But it agreed to investigate the possibility of disclosure labels for consumers.
The department’s support for the Gowers review “has given the Copyright Alliance pause,” said Executive Director Patrick Ross. Gowers’s enforcement recommendations were constructive, but the report contained “misconceptions” about copyright and unfairly discriminated against performers, Ross said. Legislators must understand a fundamental point, he said: “Copyright isn’t anti-consumer.” Alliance members include major U.S. entertainment and broadcasting companies and rights organizations.