EU suggests singers and musicians should earn copyright fees for 95 years
BRUSSELS, Belgium: Singers and musicians should earn royalty fees for 95 years — almost double the current 50-year limit, a European Union official said Thursday as he promised to draft new copyright protection rules.
“If nothing is done, thousands of European performers who recorded in the late 1950s and 1960s will lose all of their airplay royalties over the next ten years,” said EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, the union’s internal market chief. “These royalties are often their sole pension.”
People are living longer and 50 years of copyright protection no longer give lifetime income to artists who recorded hits in their late teens or early twenties, he said.
“Rent-seeking”, “law of diminishing returns”,”knee-jerk” and “destroy Cliff Richard” are some of the things that immediately come to mind.
Idea: Get the EU to lengthen copyright to 4 billion years, then record a Christmas song.
One problem with that – Cliff’s at least 6.4 billion years old…