December 15, 2008

UK to back old music rules

At the moment, any song published in the UK has a shelf life of fifty years; this is where the owners of the copyrights can claim royalties on the songs for fifty years. In the long term this would appear to be fine, but tell that the Sir Cliff Richard whose music is about to enter the public domain.

The song “Move It” was released in 1958, in a few weeks time Sir Cliff will no longer be able to claim royalties on this track and as time moves on all of the other record releases that he had during the early years.

Yet the government is set to renew this agreement for another twenty years, the Culture Minister, Andy Burnham claims that increasing the current agreement for a further twenty years in the next logical step for these copyrights.

Source [Ars Technica]