EC initiatives on term extension and co-written works
The European Commission announced today (Wednesday 16 July 2008) the adoption of two initiatives in the area of copyright.
The first is the proposal to align the copyright term for performers with that applicable to authors. A move on term extension has been long expected since Commissioner Charlie McCreevy first raised the prospect in February of this year.
Potentially of greater interest to publishers is the second initiative, a proposal to fully harmonise the copyright term that applies to co-written musical compositions, by treating all works which contain the contributions of several authors in the same way when calculating the term of protection.
According to the Commission "music is overwhelmingly co-written. For example, in an opera, there are often different authors to the music and to the lyrics. Moreover, in musical genres such as jazz, rock and pop music, the creative process is often collaborative in nature. According to the proposed rule the term of protection of a musical composition shall expire 70 years after the death of the last surviving author, be it the author of the lyrics or the composer of the music".