The Cliff Richards performance copyright extension
February 15th, 2008 | by aobaoill |The EU commission is proposing to extend copyright terms for performers of music, to match the existing terms for composers. The notion of retroactive extension is problematic (though not unprecedented), but there are some interesting aspects to the proposal:
For session musicians, the record companies will set up a fund reserving at least 20 percent of the income during the extended term to them. For featured artists, original advances may no longer be set off against royalties in the extended term, which means the artist would get all the royalties during the extended term.
The commissioner also intends to propose a “use it or lose it” provision. In the case where a record company is unwilling to re-release a performance during the extended term, the performer can move to another label.