Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

cc-be - Re: [Cc-be] IFPI Petition: Extend 50 years protection

cc-be AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Creative Commons - Belgium

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Frederik Questier <fquestie AT vub.ac.be>
  • To: cc-be AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Cc-be] IFPI Petition: Extend 50 years protection
  • Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 15:00:44 +0100

Op Saturday 19 November 2005 14:05, schreef Wouter Vanden hove:
> Hello,
>
> I would like to hear some opinions about the IFPI-petition in attachment.

These are just the record companies, trying to make copyright protections
infinite, killing the public domain, and increasing their control over the
artists.

> Exactly what is protected for 50 years?
>
> A songwriter writes lyrics for a song.
> a performer sings this song in agreement with the songwriter and puts it
> in a record to sell.
>
> Then what happens after 50 years?
> All royalties stop to the singer, but not the songwriter?

It means that when a performance is 50 years old, the copyrightholder of the
performance (and that is almost always the record company and not the
artists) is no longer the only one whose has control over the recording,
who can make money of it, or copy it freely.

This is of course in the case nobody else has still copyrights pending, such
as the songwriter. So think about 50-year old performances of e.g.
Beethoven's music.

This extension is totally against the original copyright idea (UK 1710: "for
the encouragement of learning"; US 1790: "to promote the progress of
science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and
inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and
discoveries.")

This means e.g. that is harder than it should be for other artists such as
movie makers, to include old music in their own works...

Compare it with Disney who copied lots of things, like Pinnochio in 1940,
one year after the copyright of Carlo Collodi finished, and who is now
itself pushing for never extending copyrights...

If the record companies can't make enough profit by being the only one who
can sell the product during 50 years, they have a very flawed business
model.
Compare this with products like medicines which need an investment of 300M
Euros that can still be profitable with 20 years patent protection minus
10-12 years development.

Frederik

--
Free University - Free Software !
Vrije Universiteit - Vrije Software !

"The most fundamental way of helping other people,
is to teach people how to do things better
or how to better their lives.
For people who use computers, this means sharing the recipes
you use on your computer, in other words the programs you run."
Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation.
--
Frederik Questier, PhD
Onderwijsvernieuwing &
Onderwijs Service Centrum
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
http://osc.vub.ac.be
http://questier.com




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page