Europeans: sign petition now to fight copyright extension for recordings
Glyn sez, "The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Open Rights Group have set up a website so that EU citizens can air their objections to copyright term extension. Sign the petition to the major institutions of the European Union to stop copyright term extension and keep copyright policy sound. Major record labels want to keep control of sound recordings well beyond the current 50 year term so that they can continue to make marginal profits from the few recordings that are still commercially viable half a century after they were laid down. Yet if the balance of copyright tips in their favour, it will damage the music industry as a whole, and also individual artists, libraries, academics, businesses and the public.
(Also in French and German --
They are working on a offer to translate the site into Italian. If you're interested in translating Sound Copyright into your local language, please get in touch - email info@soundcopyright.eu)
Link
The labels lobby for change, but have yet to publicly present any compelling economic evidence to support their case. What evidence does exist shows clearly that extending term will discourage innovation, stunt the reissues market, and irrevocably damage future artists' and the general public's access to their cultural heritage.As Europe looks to the creative industries for its economic future, it is faced with a choice. It can agree to extend the copyright term in sound recordings for the sake of a few major record labels. Or it can allow sound recordings to enter the public domain at the end of fifty years for the benefit of future innovation, future prosperity and the public good.
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G'day,
I wrote a song about how copyright limits music and recorded it as part of the RPM Challenge last month.
Today I've put the parts online under Creative Commons so anyone can remix, remaster, sample or dissect the track and spread the message that "this music that flows through me can flow through you too."
There are some interesting instruments in it too, like aeolian harp and glockenspiel and fretless bass: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=810851&content=music
Grab the parts and have a go