Attack on Government plan to extend copyright laws
18th December 2008
Former FT editor, Andrew Gowers, has criticised the Government’s plans to extend the term of copyright for performers from. He says the plans to extend the current term) was "silly and out of touch".
Culture Secretary Andy Burnham announced plans to extend the term from 50 years to "something like 70 years," in a speech to the trade body UK Music. Burnham said: "There is a moral case for performers benefiting from their work throughout their entire lifetime." He has been working with Innovation Secretary John Denham on revising the term of copyright for performers "to consider the arguments for an extension of copyright term for performers from the current 50 years." "An extension to match more closely a performer’s expected lifetime, perhaps something like 70 years, for example, given that most people make their best work in their 20s and 30s," said Burnham.
Gowers was commissioned by HM Treasury at the end of 2005 to produce recommendations on intellectual property law reform. His findings were published in December 2006. Some of his recommendations have since become law.
The term of copyright protection for performers was among the issues investigated by Gowers and his team. Currently composers have copyright protection for life plus 70 years, whereas performers and producers only have rights for 50 years. Some groups had argued for an extension to 70 years in the interests of fairness but Gowers recommended leaving the term unchanged.
For more information on this story and an interview with Andrew Gowers, visit OUT-LAW news.