Info/Law

Given my interest in Info/law and in British politics, I cannot ignore this post from Bill Patry.

David Cameron, the Leader of Britain’s Tory Party, delivered a speech to the annual meeting of the UK recording industry trade group last week in which he committed his party to a 20-year extension of the copyright term for sound recordings, up to 70 years. (It is noteworthy, however, that the industry actually wants 95 years.) Patry’s analysis is spot-on and I have little to add. As he says, the argument that such a change is necessary to encourage digitization of existing music is “baloney”:

This same argument was made by the MPAA in arguing for term extension in the United States: granting an extra 20 years would provide the economic incentive to digitize (as we spell it) older movies. No matter who makes that argument, it is baloney: the decision whether to put out a digital version of back catalogue is made, as it properly should be, purely by economics: will it sell enough to justify the cost? [snip] Most importantly perhaps, there is no reason to believe that without term extension, third parties could produce digital versions of back catalogue just as, if not more efficiently as the labels, and cheaper too.

Cameron’s principal opponent in the next election, new Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the Labour Party, commissioned last year’s Gowers Review of Intellectual Property when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Gowers Review reached quite a different view on the topic, after methodically ripping apart arguments for term extension:

In conclusion, the Review finds the arguments in favour of term extension unconvincing. The evidence suggests that extending the term of protection for sound recordings or performers’ rights prospectively would not increase the incentives to invest, would not increase the number of works created or made available, and would negatively impact upon consumers and industry. Furthermore, by increasing the period of protection, future creators would have to wait an additional length of time to build upon past works to create new products and those wishing to revive protected but forgotten material would be unable to do so for a longer period of time.

The EU is considering term extension now. If Labour under Brown takes the Gowers position on this issue, then you would have a genuine partisan split. Since the Prime Minister pretty much controls parliamentary outcomes through the whip on issues such as this, the next election presumably will determine the matter. Not that I expect most average British voters are casting their ballots on this issue, but it is a contrast with US politics, where there is no consistent difference between the parties on IP issues like copyright term.

Filed under: Copyright, Digital Media, Media, Music, RIAA, Voting