The widow of the late British "skiffle king" Lonnie Donegan has thrown her weight behind the campaign to extend the length of recorded music copyright in the UK, which currently stands at fifty years.
As previously reported, British record labels and artists have become increasingly proactive in their bid to have recording copyrights increased in the UK, and across Europe, as the fiftieth anniversary of many legendary rock n roll recordings, including the early Beatles catalogue, start to appear on the horizon. They argue it is unfair that there is such a big discrepancy between the recording copyright period and that allowed for songwriters (life plus seventy years), and also point out the inconsistency between Europe and the US, where recording copyrights are 95 years. Industry execs had hoped a recent government review of copyright laws led by Andrew Gowers would provide a framework for that copyright term extension, but instead Gowers advised government ministers against extending the term.
Donegan's music from the late fifties is in the process of coming out of copyright - one of his best known songs, 'Cumberland Gap', comes out of copyright next January, while his first hit, 'Rock Island Line', came out of copyright last year. With that in mind his widow, Sharon Donegan, has called on MPs to look into extending the recording copyright, despite Gowers' recommendation, warning that the families of dead music stars could face financial hardship when royalty payments end.
Writing in UK trade magazine MusicWeek, Donegan says: "'Rock Island Line' was a 1930s song, but Lonnie's recording was quite unlike the blues original. It was an up-tempo version, which just steamed along. I bet if you asked most people whose song it was, they would say Lonnie or Johnny Cash or one of the other singers who recorded it. It was their recording which brought the song to life and that's what people remember. His recordings of 'Rock Island Line' and 'Cumberland Gap' are effectively worthless once the copyright term ends. It's not even as though they made us rich. People say I must be a millionaire, but, no. The royalties were just enough to get by".
Donegan's comments coincide with the release of a CD by UK recording royalty collection society PPL called 'Copyright Gap' which is being sent to British MPs in a bid to persuade them to get behind the copyright extension campaign. Donegan concludes: "I just hope the politicians listen to all the tracks on that CD and then give us the same copyright term as the songwriters and photographers. Hard-working people like Lonnie, who gave so many so much fun, deserve at least this".