[pp.finland] Fwd: Pressure groups unite to condemn copyright extension

[Kaj Sotala]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sound Copyright <info at soundcopyright.eu>
Date: Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 5:25 PM
Subject: Pressure groups unite to condemn copyright extension
To: xuenay at gmail.com


Dear Sound Copyright petitioner,

Today, organisations representing consumers, citizens and libraries
around the world united to condemn copyright term extension in Europe.
The joint statement was sent to MEPs who sit on the committees that
will decide the flawed Term Extension Directive's future. It read:

= STATEMENT BEGINS =

The European Parliament is being asked to nearly double the term of
copyright afforded to sound recordings. Industry lobbyists suggest
that extending copyright term will help increase the welfare of
performers and session musicians. But the Term Extension Directive,
which will be voted on by the Legal Affairs Committee in a few weeks'
time, will do no such thing. Instead it will hand millions of euros
over to the world's four major record labels, money that will come
direct from the pockets of European consumers. The majority (80%) of
recording artists will receive between €0.50 - €26 a year.

Helping poor recording artists is a commendable aim. But the Term
Extension Directive insults these good intentions. Andrew Gowers,
former editor of the Financial Times, who conducted an independent
review into the intellectual property framework for the UK Government
in 2006, has called it out of tune with reality. Professor Bernt
Hugenholtz, who advises the European Commission on intellectual
property issues, has called it a deliberate attempt on behalf of the
Commission to mislead Europe's Parliament. If passed, the Term
Extension Directive will have serious consequences for Europe's IP
policy.

*Any extension of copyright term will take money directly from
consumers' pockets. It will also consign a large part of Europe's
cultural heritage to a commercial vacuum.

*Europe's leading IP research centres have clearly shown the proposal
does not do what it purports to do - help the poorest performers. It
is simply a windfall for the owners of large back catalogues and the
top earning performers.

*The proposal will undermine public respect for copyright law and
introduce an unworkable and unproven framework for copyright, at the
very time when Europe's copyright framework needs to be at its most
robust.

We therefore ask you to vote to reject this directive, as per
Amendment 15 of the ITRE opinion (David Hammerstein).

= STATEMENT ENDS =

As well as EFF, Open Rights Group and Consumer Focus, the statement
was signed by BEUC, the umbrella organisation representing 42 consumer
rights organisations in Europe, EDRI, the umbrella organisation
representing 29 privacy and civil rights organisations across Europe,
and IFLA, the umbrella organisation representing over 650,000 library
and information professionals worldwide. You can download the full
statement here (1).

Thanks to everyone for the great response to the cartoon we released
last week (2). It's already had over 14,000 views, been translated
into Spanish, and it's currently eleventh in YouTube's top favourited
News and Politics videos (not bad for the week Obama got inaugurated).
But the battle is by no means won yet - please, if you can, come to
our event in Brussels (3), or invite your MEP to come on your behalf.

Yours, the Sound Copyright Team

(1) http://www.openrightsgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/joint_statement_final.pdf
(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kijON_XODUk
(3) http://soundcopyright.eventbrite.com/