A group of those MP types, led by SNP MP and former Runring man Peter Wishart, have tabled an Early Day Motion in the Houses Of Parliament calling on the government to extend the sound recording copyright from fifty to 95 years. As previously reported, there has been much lobbying on the part of the record labels and some artists and musicians for the recording copyright to be extended, [a] to bring it in line with the US recording copyright (95 years), [b] to bring it closer to the songwriter copyright term (life plus 70 years), and [c] to stop those big rock n roll releases of the sixties coming out of copyright next decade. The government's own Gowers Review of copyright law advised against an extension, but the extend-the-term lobby have the support of EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy who, at a European level, is calling for the extension to 95 years.
Six MPs have signed the motion, which proposes the following: "This House welcomes the proposal by the EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services [McCreevy] that copyright terms for sound recordings should be extended from the current 50 years to 95 years; notes that performers will be the main beneficiaries of an extension through the provision of a fund for musicians from the extra money earned in the long-term; further notes that the proposal requires copyright holders to publish their works or else license others to do so, which will ensure that music remains available to consumers; believes that the proposal will mean that British and European musical creativity is properly rewarded and will redress some of the existing unfairness faced by perfomers compared to composers and songwriters in the copyright system, while giving European performers the same rights as those enjoyed by performers in most other countries; and calls on the government to give the proposal its full support at future meetings of the European Council".
Early Day Motions don't generally achieve much in terms of either forcing debate in the House Of Commons or making government change policy (it's possible that the best way to do that is resign as an MP and force a by-election on a single issue - though I'm not convinced that will work either, we'll see I guess), but it puts those MPs who sign's opinion on the record. Which is nice.