Dutch senate extends protection of performers’ rights

The Dutch senate has accepted a proposal to change the term of copyright protection for performers from 50 to 70 years.

The legislative proposal will implement Directive 2011/77/EU, which called for an extension to cover the “income gap” that performers – actors, singers, musicians or dancers – may experience towards the end of their lives after their rights have expired.

An extension is also designed to help artists stop any objectionable use of their performances.

According to the directive, revenues derived from exclusive rights should be available to performers for at least their lifetime.

It also suggested a measure requiring "phonogram" producers to set aside 20 percent of revenues from the exclusive rights of distribution and reproduction of phonograms for performers at least once a year.

The World Intellectual Property Organization Performances and Phonograms Treaty defines a phonogram as “the fixation of the sounds of a performance or of other sounds, or of a representation of sounds, other than in the form of a fixation incorporated in a cinematographic or other audiovisual work”.

Bjorn Schipper, a lawyer at Bousie Advocaten in Amsterdam, said the directive also gives a performing artist the right to dissolve its contract with its label if one of its recordings is not used.

“The artist has to send the label a letter, and if they don’t use [the recording] the artist can dissolve the contract and the rights go back to the artist,” he explained.

“That’s an important thing because in the past you needed litigation to get this but now, based on this new law, it seems to be easier for the artist to dissolve the contract – unless the label re-exploits [the recording] within one year of receiving the letter,” he added.

The proposal will enter into law 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.