House of Commons culture committee rules in favour of copyright term extension on sound recordings
The House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport has today released its Fifth Report - an investigation into New Media.
The report endorses performing artists’ call for an extension to the term of copyright in sound recordings (although, as Copyweb points out, this slightly confuses rights in performances with rights in sound recordings).
The Committee’s logic looks simple:
“Gowers’ analysis was thorough and in economic terms may be correct. It gives the impression, however, of having been conducted entirely on economic grounds. We strongly believe that copyright represents a moral right of a creator to choose to retain ownership and control of their own intellectual property. We have not heard a convincing reason why a composer and his or her heirs should benefit from a term of copyright which extends for lifetime and beyond, but a performer should not.”
Gowers did couch his report in economic terms. His idea of balance matched the needs of creators against those of consumers and innovators.
But he didn’t just do this because he was commissioned by the Treasury. He was reflecting the current position of UK law. Current UK law regards copyright as an economic incentive to create, or, as Gowers puts it “a purely statutory right created for the utilitarian purpose of encouraging literary efforts”.
It seems the House of Commons Select Committee is not arguing for an extension to term, it is arguing for a fundamental change to the law, a law for which there are plenty of “convincing reasons” which can all be couched in moral terms.
But it may just as likely be the case that the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport simply doesn’t know its law properly.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
The CMS committee is chaired by John Whittingdale MP, who at a Conservative party conference fringe meeting on copyright last year spouted the most retrograde nonsense I have heard on the subject for some time. I suspect he embarrassed even the right holders present.
May 16th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
The Committee’s current members are listed below. Please write to express your perspective if you’re a constituent.
Mr John Whittingdale MP - Maldon and East Chelmsford - Conservative
Janet Anderson MP - Rossendale and Darwen - Labour
Philip Davies MP - Shipley - Conservative
Mr Nigel Evans MP - Ribble Valley - Conservative
Paul Farrelly MP - Newcastle-under-Lyme - Labour
Mr Mike Hall MP - Weaver Valley - Labour
Alan Keen MP - Feltham and Heston - Labour
Rosemary McKenna MP - Cumbernauld and Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East - Labour
Adam Price MP - Carmarthen East and Dinefwr - Plaid Cymru
Mr Adrian Sanders MP - Torbay - Liberal Democrats
Helen Southworth MP - Warrington South - Labour
May 16th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
[...] The Open Rights Group : Blog Archive » House of Commons culture committee rules in favour of copyright term extension on sound recordings [...]
May 17th, 2007 at 12:23 am
[...] The Open Rights Group : Blog Archive » House of Commons culture committee rules in favour of copyright term extension on sound recordings IP Maximalism raises its head again in the UK parliament. Write to your MP! (tags: ip-maximalism UK action free-culture) [...]
May 17th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
[...] Thanks to Harry Metcalfe for alerting Geeklawyer to the news, greeted with weary ennui, that Parliament is thinking of yielding to the special interest groups and uber rich lobbying power of the music cartel. Despite Gower saying that extending the mechanical copyright term from 50 to 70 years was unjustified on economic grounds the vacuous MPs thought the real issue was morality. [...]
May 20th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
[...] Copyright extensions roll forward regardless [...]
June 6th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
[...] In ihrem Beitrag auf opendemocray gibt Becky Hogge einen Überblick über aktuelle Entwicklungen und liefert beste Beispiele dafür, dass vielleicht mehr als nur eine kleine Revolution möglich ist. At the heart of that effort will be the very way we define and consider intellectual-property law. Despite the protestations of rightsholders and the forums they capture (most recently, the House of Commons’s select committee on culture, media and sport), intellectual-property law has little to do with morals or natural rights. [...]
July 6th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
[...] House of Commons culture committee rules in favour of copyright term extension on sound recordings (OpenRightsGroup.org) after first previously reporting the following: Open Rights Group: “Politicians should listen to facts, not fairytales” (OpenRightsGroup.org) where it was stated: The Open Rights Group today urged MPs to listen to the facts on copyright term extension, and not to the small group of people who seek to distort them by mistaking the copyright regime for a pension scheme. [...]
July 24th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
[...] Back in May, we reported on the House of Commons Culture Committee’s misguided decision to recommend that the term of copyright in sound recordings be extended. The recommendation come despite compelling evidence that as well as harming consumers and follow on innovators, such a move would bring no benefit to the majority of UK recording artists and would result in a net loss to the UK economy. It also came couched in language that betrayed a basic misunderstanding of copyright law on behalf of the Committee. [...]
August 31st, 2007 at 12:59 pm
[...] In ihrem Beitrag auf opendemocray gibt Becky Hogge einen Überblick über aktuelle Entwicklungen und liefert beste Beispiele dafür, dass vielleicht mehr als nur eine kleine Revolution möglich ist. At the heart of that effort will be the very way we define and consider intellectual-property law. Despite the protestations of rightsholders and the forums they capture (most recently, the House of Commons’s select committee on culture, media and sport), intellectual-property law has little to do with morals or natural rights. Geschrieben in Medienrecht, Urheberrecht [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
[...] of rightsholders and the forums they capture (most recently, the House of Commons’s select committee on culture, media and sport), intellectual-property law has little to do with morals or natural rights. Yes, creators and [...]