Keeping Up With Uncle Sam

European recording companies are pushing to extend terms of copyright to nearly 100 years to be more in line with U.S. law.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, which represents European music labels, is calling on the European Commission to bring the issue to EU countries, which will consider the matter sometime next year, according to IFPI spokeswoman Francine Cunningham.

"From a cultural point of view, we find it strange that European artists are protected more in the U.S. than they are back home," she said.

Currently in the EU, there are separate copyright terms for composers and performers. Composers are awarded copyright for the life of the author plus 70 years. Performers hold a copyright for 50 years from the first recording. It's the 50-year term the IFPI wants to extend.

"We feel there is real discrimination here," Cunningham said. "Record companies in the U.S., their assets are valued much more highly because they have a much longer term of (copyright) protection.... When you have such a huge disparity, it's very hard to do business."

Copyright terms for individual creators in the United States are awarded for the life of the author plus 70 years. Companies hold copyrights for 95 years before creative works return to the public domain.

Cunningham said that because the copyright term is longer in countries like the United States, Australia and Singapore, the European countries' copyright terms should be extended.

That's an "outrageous" argument, said Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, a group that developed a system of flexible copyright licenses that enable sharing and remixing of creative works (with the author's permission).

"They had a 50-year monopoly," Lessig said. "They are asking for a welfare grant to say, 'Give us another 50-year monopoly.'"

He compared the situation to an engineer signing a contract to build a bridge in London for $2 million, then building a similar bridge in the United States for $4 million -- and then after the bridges are done, demanding $4 million for the London bridge, too.

"The justification from an economic perspective is absolutely baseless," Lessig said.

The issue of expanding copyright in Europe has flared up as the EU copyrights of famous rock 'n' rollers like The Beatles and Elvis are due to expire within the next several years.

James Purnell, the U.K. minister for creative industries and tourism, recently discussed the copyright issue in several newspapers.

"The music industry is a risky business and finding talent and artists is expensive," he told the Sunday Times. "There is a view that long-term earners are needed so that the record companies can plough money back into new talent."

A spokesman for the U.K.'s Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the government is reviewing the copyright term but no decision has been made yet.

"The government made a manifesto commitment to review copyright policy because we recognize that it is the economic foundation for the creative industries," he said. "All the European Union partners would have to be convinced that there was a justification for any change of the current terms. It's an EU law issue."

Purnell is expected to deliver a speech about the creative industries next week, but details on the subject of the speech have not been confirmed, the spokesman said.

One digital rights activist in the United Kingdom said he was concerned that Purnell was only listening to one side of the discussion -- the rights-holders'. There needs to be more of a balance when considering changes to copyright terms, said Rufus Pollock, director of Friends of the Creative Domain.

"The current U.K. government doesn't really have an awareness of the sea change that is coming about," Pollock said.

For example, the U.K.'s publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC, is making efforts to free much of its content for the public to use, Pollock said. The BBC has been highly praised for its efforts, though the project is still in its early stages.

But if powerful copyright holders get their way and the copyright terms are extended, the EU should work out a compromise allowing creative works that are no longer commercially viable to return to the public domain, said Stanford's Lessig.

When copyright terms were repeatedly extended in the United States, the changes created a huge class of orphan works that are no longer in print, but are locked away under copyright. The U.S. copyright office has solicited suggestions on how to sort out this problem.

One copyright reformer said that he expected a battle royal if the EU tries to extend the 50-year term.

"Any politician who tries to introduce this will have a big fight on his hands," said Danny O'Brien, activism coordinator at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "The idea that we can just do this constant ratcheting for literally 100 years is insane. I think people have caught on. People (have a) growing understanding for how important the public domain is."