The US Copyright Alliance has entered the much previously reported debate on recorded copyrights in the UK after the British government last week said it would adopt as policy the findings of last year's Gowers Review of intellectual property laws, which said there was no case to extend the British (and European) recorded copyright term from its current fifty years.
The UK record industry had been pushing, of course, for the term to be extended to bring it more in line with the US copyright term of 95 years and the UK publishing copyright term of life plus 70 years. A parliamentary sub-committee that reported after Gowers recommended an increase to at least 70 years.
Following renewed criticism of Gowers by the UK record industry last week, and new criticism for the government's decision to follow Gowers, the Washington-based Alliance said in a statement on Friday: "While the Gowers Review, commissioned and authored last year, contains positive recommendations regarding domestic and international enforcement against piracy it also contains certain misconceptions regarding copyright and, in overlooking the discrepancy in authors' rights, unfairly discriminates against performers"
It continues: "Legislators worldwide must understand one fundamental point - copyright isn't anti-consumer. Copyright stimulates creativity and it promotes culture. Copyright has been proven to be good for commerce, good for the economy, and therefore beneficial for consumers. Copyright is not an obstacle to the enjoyment of creative works, it provides the critical framework for those works to be enjoyed in the first place".