The Musicians' Union has issued another statement in support of an extension of the recorded music copyright term, timed, of course, to immediately precede the publication of proposals from European Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy which are expected to propose just that.
As much previously reported, the record industry has been lobbying hard in recent years to extend the copyright term on recordings in Europe from the current 50 years to something nearer the 95 years awarded to recordings in the US (or the life plus seventy years term awarded to songwriters). That lobbying was dealt a blow by the UK government's Gowers Review of copyright laws, which said the recording copyright term should stay at fifty years. But since then McCreevy has announced he plans to push for an extension to 95 years at a European level, and his proposals are due out tomorrow.
Record companies, artists and session musicians all stand to win from an extension in the recording copyright, of course, because as it currently stands after 50 years recordings fall into the pubic domain meaning anyone can release them without paying royalties to the labels or artists involved in their original release. It's good for the corporate record companies that individual musicians could also benefit from a copyright term extension, because the public at large are generally more supportive of extending royalty payments to jobbing or retired musicians than they are to multinational corporations.
Which is why the Musicians' Union has an important part to play in this whole debate. Pre-empting McCreevy's proposal document, the Union's General Secretary said yesterday: "There are a huge number of artists who are 100% in favour of Commissioner McCreevy's proposals, as they would provide a new and much-needed source of income for retired musicians. A letter was sent to [European Commission] President [Jose Manuel] Barroso last week on behalf of performers' trade unions and collective right management organisations from all 27 member states urging the Commission to move forward with these proposals. By adopting McCreevy's proposals, the Commission would at last begin to acknowledge the contribution made by performers to European creativity, and go a considerable way to affording them a long overdue official recognition of their talent".
However, not all artists may be so keen on McCreevy's proposals when they are published tomorrow. According to Music Week, previously discussed proposals that would favour artists over record companies as part of any copyright term extension may be shelved.
There had been talk of any copyright extension being accompanied by something called the "clean slate" provision, in which parts of existing agreements between labels and artists would be automatically wiped clean at the fifty year point, basically meaning that artists who had not recouped on their original record deal (and who are therefore not due any royalties from their record sales) and those who had waved royalty payments on discounted record releases would no longer be subject to those obligations.
The point of all that is to ensure individual artists benefit from the copyright extension oblivious of their outstanding contractual commitments to their record label. But according to Music Week said "clean slate" provision may not now appear as part of McCreevy's proposals meaning that while the extension will still be of value to labels and those session musicians paid a straight royalty, they may be pretty worthless to signed artists who haven't recouped, which is seven eighths of them if Music Week is to be believed.