EU Parliament Votes to Extend Copyright Terms to 70 Years

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 24, 2009 - 9:53am.

Strasbourg, France - The European Parliament voted this week to approve extending copyright term lengths from 50 to 70 years in a first reading of the measure, which must now be approved by EU governments as well before becoming law, Agence France Presse reported. The measure, which passed by a vote of 377 to 178, would apply only to new recordings.

The original measure proposed extending the term length to 95 years, but was reduced to 70 years after protests from several member states.

Other critics of the extension include musician Billy Bragg, who told the Associated Press that the legislation "offers the multinational record corporations a potential windfall of the size of the invention of the CD."

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/gn5mw (AFP)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/23/europe_music_copyright_term/

http://snipurl.com/gn5d4 (AP)