An EU Directive extending the term of copyright in sound recordings to 70 years was adopted at a meeting of the Council of Ministers on 12th September 2011.
The Directive, which amends Directive 2006/116/EC on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights, increases performers’ rights in sound recordings and the rights of producers of sound recordings from 50 years to 70 years from the date of first lawful publication or communication to the public. This change brings performers’ rights closer to those of authors who have copyright protection for their lifetime and 70 years after their death.
The Directive also introduces additional rights for performers including a “use it or lose it” provision whereby a performer may terminate the assignation of rights to a record producer where the producer fails to make sufficient quantities of their recording available to the public after 50 years and the creation of a fund into which record producers are required to pay 20% of revenues earned from sound recordings during the extended copyright term. Monies from the fund are to be distributed annually to performers who assigned their rights to the record producers in return for a one-off fee.
The term of copyright for combined musical and literary works when in the form of musical compositions with words [songs] differ between member states due to inconsistent definitions of “joint authorship.” The Directive harmonises the copyright term by requiring EU member states calculate the 70 year term for musical compositions with words from the date of death of the last surviving of the author of the lyrics and the composer of the musical composition provided that both contributions were specifically created for the respective song.
Member states have two years from the date of entry into force of the Directive to enshrine the changes in national law.
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