New IFPI Boss Vows to Extend Recording Copyrights

JamesD_UK writes "John Kennedy, President and COO of Universal Music is to succeed Jay Berman as Chairman of the IFPI, the worldwide equivalent to the RIAA. Andrew Orlowski of The Register has written an article covering John Kennedy's views on copyright infringement and the public domain. Although Kennedy's thoughts on the former are predictable, he has vowed to fight hard to extend European recording copyrights past the current fifty year term. An extension of the European term to match the US would be particularly damaging to the public domain and efforts such as the Internet Archive as well as increasing the control that the recording industry holds over performers. For those interested, I run a small blog of articles regarding copyright recordings."

Comments

Limited?

[BillyBlaze]

If time continues to progress at 1 year per year, and copyrights are extended faster than that, then no copyright will expire in a limited time. Granted, this may not be constitutionally mandated in Europe, but what if they extend it further than it currently is in the US? Then we will have to extend it it to match them.

If governments won't stop this trend, maybe competition can. If people come up with a licence that expires in, say, 15 years, and a trademark logo ("Sane copyright inside!"), and companies who wouldn't be impacted by this start using it, it might become popular. Then, people who care could exert direct competitive pressure against those who don't go along.

No, I don't think this will actually happen, but wouldn't it be cool?

Limit copyright

[teeth]

...to 15 years and real humans.

Exclusive licences should be limited to 5 years and carry an obligation to publish; if a licencee fails to publish they should lose their rights without compensation.

Goes against the original copyright spirit

[Large Bogon Collider]

Copyright is a monopoly on use/distribution for a _limited_ time so as to grant the authors/creators some time to recoup their expenses. Afterward, it is meant to go into the public domain so as to benefit all of mankind. Most of our great works of literature and songs are in the public domain, which allows anyone to create derivative works without being unduly hampered by fees and such. If you can't make an adequate return on an investment in 50 years, it is safe to say that it was a flop. A copyright extension does nothing to change that! These greedy pigs ought to be slapped down.

An interesting sidenote is this: remember when copying a chord (dunno how many notes that was) of song was considered infringement? I wonder what would happen if someone went out and made a pseudosong with every possible combination of a chord. Then they could sue every new song as being "infringing." The whole notion is ridiculous