Open Rights Group and EFF launch Europe-wide anti-term extension petition
I’m pleased to announce today the launch of a Europe-wide campaign against the extension of copyright term. Thanks to ORG volunteers, and some very nice people I met at FOSDEM, the new campaign site - soundcopyright.eu - is available in English, French and German.
Please visit the site, and sign the petition.
The recording industry has been lobbying for copyright term extension in sound recordings for many years. In the UK, the Government commissioned an independent study to examine whether term extension was a good idea for the UK creative economy. The review found that all the evidence pointed against extending term, and based on this, the UK government rejected the recording industry’s call for an extension.
Now the recording industry has taken its fight to Europe, and it looks like they’re winning - Commissioner Charlie McCreevy announced in February that he intends to extend the copyright term in sound recordings from 50 to 95 years. This is surprising, since the Commissioner’s own Internal Market Directorate have also published evidence that shows that the arguments in favour of extending term lacked substance, especially compared to the reasons for maintaining the status quo.
If you care about this issue, please sign our petition, which states simply:
The following individuals state their opposition to a copyright term extension for sound recordings.
We ask the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers to ensure that policy in this area reflects all concerned stakeholders, including consumer and public interest organisations, and not just the commercial rights-holders who advocate for extended copyright term.
It’s time for European citizens to get their voices heard in this debate. Back in 2006, over 1,000 people signed ORG’s petition asking the UK government to reject term extension - and it worked. We want ten times that many to sign this new Europe-wide petition. So please, tell as many people as you can about our campaign to stop copyright term extension in Europe. We’ll use your support to lobby individual Commissioners, and to ensure that this misguided policy is rejected.
Together, we will stop copyright term extension.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
[...] http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/02/29/open-rights-group-and-eff-launch-europe-wide-anti-term-ext... [...]
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
We can’t accept this extension !
March 12th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
[...] Open Rights Group and EFF launch Europe-wide anti-term extension petition (29.02.2008) [...]
March 13th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
[...] Open Rights Group and EFF launch Europe-wide anti-term extension petition (29.02.2008) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/02/29/open-rights-group-and-eff-la…; [...]
April 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
[...] for an experienced and committed digital rights campaigner to amplify our work on issues around copyright reform and copyright infringement, taking the concerns of ORG and its supporters to Europe and [...]
July 14th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
[...] were first announced in February, with groups like the Open Rights Group and the EFF launching a petition to have it blocked, as well as a website to deal with the issue. Nevertheless, McCreevy kept on [...]
July 16th, 2008 at 12:43 am
[...] lado, a ONG britânica Open RIghts Group e a Electronic Frontier Foundation também lançaram uma petição e um site para informar os cidadãos europeus do que estava realmente em causa. O próprio McCreevy [...]
September 10th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
[...] protected ideas. The Open Rights Group and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are together campaigning against an extension to copyright terms, and organisations like GNU and FFII are campaigning against software patents full stop, both in [...]
September 17th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
[...] were first announced in February, with groups like the Open Rights Group and the EFF launching a petition to have it blocked, as well as a website to deal with the issue. Nevertheless, McCreevy kept on [...]