The Effects of the Extension of European Copyright In
Sound Recordings to 70 years
Alan Bunting Explains The Implications Of This Latest
EU Legislation
On September 9th 2011, the Council Of Ministers of The
European Parliament voted in favour of the Amended Proposal for the
extension of copyright in sound recordings from 50 to 70 years, thus
making it a Directive. It almost marked the end of a long campaign by
the record companies to retain the right to make yet more money from
artists such as Cliff Richard, some of whose recordings are already
out of copyright, and The Beatles whose first two singles will be 50
years old in 2012.
I say ‘almost’ because it does not become law until each
member country of the EU passes their own legislation to implement
it, and they have a maximum of 2 years in which to do it. This means
that, in extremis, it may not become law in the UK until
September 2013, although the record industry will doubtless apply
enormous pressure on the government to make it happen sooner.
Media reports on the implications of the Directive have been confused
and, in numerous cases, inaccurate. This is because many commentators
have based their conclusions and opinions on the Original Proposal as
published in 2008 rather than the Amended Proposal of 2009 which
contained significant changes not widely publicised.
Not only the media failed to understand the implications of the
amendments - so did many of the MEPs who voted in favour back in 2009
as well as artists, including Cliff Richard, who erroneously claimed
that his recordings which were already out of copyright would come
back into copyright. Even the European Commission’s own WEB
site published a précis of the Directive which contained
incorrect interpretations of parts of it (quickly amended the day
after I pointed out the errors to the UK’s Intellectual
Property Office).
There are still several aspects which remain far from clear - I will
discuss these later, but first let me try to explain in plain English
what the Directive will mean once implemented.
Recordings still in copyright (i.e. less than 50 years old) will have
their copyright extended from 50 years (known as the “first
term”) to 70 years. It does not revive copyright, so
recordings already out of copyright will remain so. This means
that if the Directive becomes law during 2012 recordings made up to
December 31st 1961 are not affected because they are
already out of copyright. If implemented during 2013, then recordings
up to the end of 1962 remain Public Domain and freely available for
anyone to re-issue. Some commentators have claimed, although I’m
not clear why, that it could be 2014 before it actually becomes law,
in which case the cut-off point would be December 1963.
So, if your interest is only in recordings made before the early
1960s you need read no further - record companies such as Avid,
Guild, Jasmine, Retrospective, Sepia, Vocalion et al will be free to
continue re-issuing them as they do now, although it must be made
clear that only the recording and performance are Public Domain. The
copyrights of the lyricist, composer and / or arranger remain in
force for 70 years after their death and appropriate royalties must
be paid via MCPS in the UK, or its equivalent in other countries, as
they are at present.
That was the straight forward bit - things become more complicated
when we discuss newer recordings, i.e. those still in copyright at
the time the Directive becomes law. The original Proposal had a
section, often referred to as “use it or lose it” which
in effect said that if, at the end of the 50 year term, the recording
was not available to the public, it automatically became Public
Domain. Unfortunately, amendments to the Proposal changed much of
this sensible concept, resulting in this part of the Directive being
not only confusing but, in some aspects, possibly unworkable.
To unravel the ramifications of “use it or lose it” as it
will be under the Directive one must understand that a sound
recording (called a “phonogram” in the Directive)
involves three different copyrights. First there is the copyright in
the recording itself (“the fixation”). This copyright is
the property of “the producer”, who for simplicity we
will assume to be a record company. The second is the copyright in
“the performance” which is the property of the artist or
artists (“the performer”), unless they have assigned it
to the record company, and the third is that of the lyricist,
composer and/or arranger which, as I have already explained, is not
affected by the new legislation.
The key paragraph in the Directive referring to performers’
rights says:
If, 50 years after the phonogram was lawfully published, or
failing such publication, 50 years after it was lawfully communicated
to the public, the phonogram producer does not offer copies of the
phonogram for sale in sufficient quantity or does not make it
available to the public, by wire or wireless means, in such a way
that members of the public may access it from a place and at a time
individually chosen by them, the performer may terminate the contract
whereby he has transferred or assigned his rights in the fixation of
his performance to a phonogram producer (hereinafter, a "contract
on transfer or assignment"). The right to terminate the contract
may be exercised if the producer, within a year from the notification
by the performer of his intention to terminate the contract pursuant
to the previous sentence, does not carry out both acts of
exploitation mentioned in that sentence. This right to terminate may
not be waived by the performer. Where a phonogram contains the
fixation of the performances of a plurality of performers, they may
terminate their contracts on transfer or assignment in accordance
with the applicable national law. If the contract on transfer or
assignment is terminated pursuant to this paragraph, the rights of
the phonogram producer in the phonogram shall expire.
This means that if, at the end of the 50 year term, a recording is
not in a record company’s catalogue and available to the
consumer, the artist may request the transfer of their performers
rights. If the record company subsequently does not make the
recording available to the public within a year, the copyright in the
performance transfers to the artist and the recording itself becomes
Public Domain. Once this has happened, although the recording may be
re-issued by a third party without the record company’s
permission, anyone doing so, in addition to paying composer royalties
as they do now, would also have to pay royalties to the performer.
How the mechanics of this process will work has not yet been
explained. Nor is it clear whether the right to re-issue the
recording would be automatic provided the appropriate artist
royalties are paid (as with composer royalties), or if the artist’s
permission would be required.
If the record company does have the recording in its catalogue, or if
not and their response to the artist’s request for transfer is
to re-issue the recording, they retain the copyright. However,
nothing in the Directive says they must then keep it in their
catalogue for the full 70 year term. It should also be noted that
“re-issue” and “making available” do not
necessarily mean on a CD via record shops - it could be made
available for listening or down-load by means of a low quality
Internet connection.
There will be many cases where the artist has no interest in
transferring their rights, and probably more where the artist is
dead. If, for whatever reason, the artist doesn’t request
transfer of their performer’s rights, the recording and
performance remain the copyright of the record company, even if it
isn't in their catalogue and, in many cases, may not have been for 40
years or more. Nor is there any obligation for them to make it
available, resulting in access to thousands of recordings being
denied to the consumer until the end of the 70 year term as other
companies will not be able to re-issue them.
Anyone with the stamina to read the whole Directive will have noticed
that, for the most part, it refers to “The Artist” and
“The Performer”, thus giving the impression that the
majority of recordings involve only one person. This, of course, is
not so and I estimate that considerably less than 1% of all the
recordings ever made meet this criterion. So what happens if we are
dealing with a four person ‘pop’ group - do all four have
to individually request the transfer of their performers’
rights? What if one of them is dead - the Directive makes no mention
of the heirs or estates of performers? What if we are talking about
the original cast recording of a stage musical - does the whole cast
plus the orchestra and the musical director have to apply? None of
these aspects are dealt with in the Directive except for one sentence
in the paragraph already quoted above which says “Where a
phonogram contains the fixation of the performances of a plurality of
performers, they may terminate their contracts on transfer or
assignment in accordance with the applicable national law.” I
have attempted to find out what the UK’s “applicable
national law” has to say about this but so far without success.
Much publicity has been given to the section that deals with the new
arrangements for payments to session musicians and backing singers
who usually received a one-off fee for their efforts and thus didn’t
share in the success of a recording. Again, one has to question how
these will work. I understand that the PPL repertoire database,
which is currently used to decide what royalties are due to who, does
not have any details of session musicians and singers for many of the
recordings of the 1960s and 1970s. For example, I wonder if Sir Cliff
could tell us the names of the 20 plus musicians and backing singers
who helped him make “Summer Holiday” such a hit? And if
we are talking about the kind of music of rather more interest to
most JIM readers, finding out who played on Ron Goodwin’s 1964
album “633 Squadron” would be almost impossible, to say
nothing of investigating if they are still alive, where they now live
and then arranging payments. Furthermore, as Ron Goodwin is no longer
with us, who exactly is “the artist” in terms of this
section of the Directive?
If it is supposed to work the other way round and musicians and
singers are expected to claim their payments, how are they going to
find out if a recording from a session they did 50 years ago has or
has not been re-issued and how can they prove that they were
involved, assuming that they even remember? Despite all the claims
that artists, backing musicians and singers will benefit, the truth
is that very few will. Independent studies estimate that 80% of
performers might receive between £5 and £50 a year -
hardy the “pension” that has been trumpeted.
One aspect I haven’t mentioned is that the Directive makes no
mention of how it will apply to recordings not made in Europe. What
happens when an American recording reaches its 50th anniversary and isn’t in the catalogue either in Europe or the
USA? If I manage to find the answer to this and all the other
questions I will let you know!
I could go on about this flawed and unwelcome piece of legislation
and how it might work but I will end by reminding readers that the
two reviews commissioned by the UK Government (Gowers and Hargreaves)
were both strongly against it. Indeed, Hargreaves said: Economic
evidence is clear that the likely deadweight loss to the economy
exceeds any additional incentivising effect which might result from
the extension of copyright term beyond its present levels.Make no mistake, the likely outcome is that the UK economy will
suffer, the record companies will get richer, most artists won’t,
and our cultural heritage will be the poorer.
Journal
Into Melody Editor David Ades adds his
personal views ....
"Unneccessary
and Unworkable"
Those two words sum up my feelings. "Unnecessary" because
the professed desire of the record companies to provide pensions for
musicians must be the most stinking red herring of all time; and
"unworkable" because the record companies may well have
landed themselves with an enormous administrative headache they will
surely come to regret.
I could write pages to condemn the extension of sound copyright, but
readers don't deserve to have to endure such a diatribe. Suffice it
to say that record companies could easily reward musicians by
granting them fair contracts and - most important of all - keeping
their recordings available so that people will buy them and royalties
accrue.
Every learned organisation that has been asked to investigate the
subject of sound copyright has come down firmly against extending the
period beyond 50 years - some have said it should be reduced, not
increased. One of these was commissioned by the European Union
itself. Why has it chosen to ignore the findings? One cannot escape
coming to the conclusion that something underhand has taken place,
and the public are the losers.
Recordings from the early 1960s onwards are likely to be locked away
in record companies' vaults for an extra 20 years, depriving some
music lovers of the chance to hear their favourite artists, unless
they happen to be big sellers. The poor composers, who have lost the
opportunity to earn royalties from reissues, appear to have been
completely ignored.
Of course, the big unanswered question is: "what is the real future for sound copyright?" Anyone who has a computer will know
that there are millions of pieces of music - not to mention videos -
available at the click of a mouse, absolutely free of charge. The
people who have uploaded these millions of items won't have bothered
to approach the copyright owners and offer them fees.
The simple fact is that modern technology has made the enforcement of
copyright virtually impossible. If the record companies had succeeded
in getting this legislation enacted 20 or 30 years ago it might have
had some meaning. But in the 21st century it is, in effect, an
irrelevance, and one wonders why this fact has escaped the faceless
EU officials who are wasting everyone's time and money forcing it
through.
This
article appeared in ‘Journal Into Melody’ issue 190,
December 2011.
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