Copyright term extension rererevisited?

[Alex Hudson]

On Fri, 2008-02-15 at 11:21 +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
> Can anyone tell us whether we should act on Bands set for longer music
> rights http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7244928.stm and how/where?

We should; if only to set the tone for copyright in general.

The UK Gowers Review is a powerful weapon in this regard: he looked
specifically at the effects of an extension of copyright, and found that
the argument in favour of it was very weak. This article is a reasonable
summary:

	http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061127-8291.html

I would be entirely unsurprised if the BPI, having lost the argument in
the UK, is one of those pushing hard at EU level. Indeed, when it's been
discussed in Parliament, gems like:

        "At the same time, will they consider the recommendation made in
        an important article in the Financial Times: that authors who
        seek an extension by 50 years of the copyright in their works
        should have to apply for a licence to do so, so that they could
        be shamed when they made such a monstrous application?" (Lord
        Lester)

.. come up time and again. However, they're still fighting in Parliament
on this issue - Pete Wishart put forward a private member's bill to
extend copyright, which is getting its second reading in March. I doubt
very much it stands any chance of succeeding, but perhaps getting people
to put pressure on their MPs to resist this would be a useful task in
the UK - it would help raise awareness of the issue which could then be
transferred to the EU.

> It's bloody commissioner Charlie McCreevy out to expand copyright again.

Yeah. His track record in general is pretty unimpressive.

Cheers,

Alex.