UK gives musicians 20 more years’ copyright
The UK has extended the term of copyright protecting sound recordings and performers’ rights from 50 to 70 years after a recording is published.
Effective on November 1, The Copyright and Duration of Rights in Performances Regulations 2013 implement EU Directive 2011/77.
Only records released on or after January 1, 1963 fall under the new regulations.
The changes also harmonise the duration of copyright for co-written works, with the term lasting for 70 years after the last surviving author dies. Current protection for these types of works differs across the EU.
Other provisions include a “use it or lose it” rule, forcing record companies to exploit a record in “sufficient quantities” after 50 years or lose the right to monetise it.
There is also a “clean slate” requirement, which prevents labels from withholding or deducting performers’ royalties after 50 years, as well as a central fund, which requires producers to set aside 20 percent of all revenues from sound recording sales for a session artist.
The EU directive implementing the regulations was approved in 2011, following lobbying from artists such as Cliff Richard, some of whose songs were set to fall out of copyright in his lifetime.
According to the legislation, it goes “some way” to tackling the income gap that some performers experience at the end of their lifetime.
While the changes are good for some rights owners, said Sarah Byrt, partner at Mayer Brown LLP, their impact may be minimal.
“They will affect those who turn out to be of long lasting appeal, but maybe that is very few people in practice.”
One uncertainty in the regulations is the definition of “sufficient quantities” under the “use it or lose it” provision, Byrt said.
“It’s hard to work out how this works in practice, as it envisages both physical copies and online sales. Who knows whether people will be buying physical copies in the future. So it’s easier for record companies to satisfy the provision in the online world – such as using iTunes – but what do they have to do in the physical world?”
She added: “What happens when you have one recording made by a band of five people and only one of them wants to exploit the ‘use it or lose it’ provision?”
The courts will have to decide this, Byrt said, adding that this provision should be considered on the “shopping list” of rules incorporated in agreements between band members.
The legislation is available here.
