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The Words of the Sledge
steve@einval.com

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Is there nothing they won't stoop to?

In the UK, the Gowers review of Intellectual Property (sigh at the usual conflation) was released this week. Amongst a whole slew of other recommendations, he stated quite clearly that the term of current music copyright protection in the UK was already long enough, and extending it was not in the public interest:

"Recommendation 3: The European Commission should retain the length of protection on sound recordings and performers' rights at 50 years."

"Recommendation 4: Policy makers should adopt the principle that the term and scope of protection for IP rights should not be altered retrospectively."

The review was published shortly after a slew of propaganda from various bodies in the UK representing the music industry, all essentially claiming "the sky is falling". Yesterday, there was even a full-page advertisement in the Financial Times signed by several thousand UK recording artists calling for "fair play for musicians". However, as Lessig points out, there's a small problem with that ad: at least some of the so-called signatories are dead, and have been for some time.

I suppose by now we should be used to the fact that the large media corporations are corrupt and self-serving - that's hardly news any more. But this really takes the biscuit...

15:01 :: # :: /music :: 0 comments