A handful of major record labels are trying to break a fifty year-old promise. Musicians and their fans will not be the only victims.

A multinational industry with privileged access to the UK government is seeking an extension to the term of copyright protection given to sound recordings. They claim it will boost Britain’s chances in the ‘knowledge economy’. The evidence says otherwise.

At the moment, sound recordings are protected for 50 years, but the music industry would like this term to be significantly extended to 95 years or even ‘life plus 70 years’ (the same term as for the underlying composition).

Leading New Labour thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research labelled this proposal “economically illogical” and “anti-competitive” in their recent report, Public Innovation: Intellectual Property in a Digital Age.

Contrary to music industry claims, term extension won’t help the vast majority of recording artists. It will leave innovative independent record labels at a significant disadvantage, and could destroy the British Library Sound Archive. Furthermore, it will make almost no contribution to UK GDP.

The Open Rights Group has prepared a briefing on term extension and has organised a day of events to draw attention to the issue on 13 November.

Journalists’ Q&A
You are invited to discuss the evidence against extending copyright terms on sound recordings with Becky Hogge, campaigning intellectual property journalist, and Suw Charman, director of ORG on Nov 13, 2006 from 2pm. Please contact us for details.

Public Debate
Please join Professor Jonathan Zittrain (Oxford University), Dave Rowntree (Blur), Martin Talbot (Music Week), Caroline Wilson (Southampton Law School), John Howkins (RSA) and others to debate term extension, on Nov 13, 2006 from 6pm at Conway Hall, Holborn. Please sign up at http://releasethemusic.eventbrite.com/

Notes for Editors
The Open Rights Group is a digital rights advocacy group based in the UK. It aims to increase awareness of digital rights issues, help foster grassroots activity and to preserve and extend civil liberties in the digital age.

For more information, contact:

michael@openrightsgroup.org
Tel: +44 (0)20 7096 1079
www.releasethemusic.org