Undermining Gowers?

Should the UK law on copyright fall automatically in line with the European Union? One of the major advantages of the EU is the effort to create a single market for goods and services stretching across much of Europe. Of course it sounds a nice idea but the detail is the killer. Writes Peter Williams

As many readers of this blog will know (probably in some detail) the UK is in the middle of a hefty consultation on copyright as part of the long-standing review of intellectual property (IP). This is a serious business as it has become a familiar refrain that copyright underpins the success of a whole range of culturally and economically important sectors in the UK.

One of these sectors is music. In an earlier round of the copyright review in 2006 the British government commissioned review of IP decided that an extension to the 50-year term for performers’ copyright protection was not necessary. The decision at the time provoked understandable disappointment but the argument was effectively over. Well it was until this week when Charlie McCreevy, the European Commission’s internal market chief, said that he was minded to propose an extension to the protection enjoyed by performers by shifting the 50 year to 95. This move would bring Europe in line with the US.

Announcing the plan – which of course has numerous hurdles to negotiate before it would become law– the long-standing commissioner, put forward two reasons for the move: helping the poor artist with no pension and the simple idea that the current law isn’t fair.

Let’s forget the details of this particular issue of whether the British government decides to abandon the Gowers review and the 50-year limit in favour of falling into line with what may turn out to be the wider will of Europe on this particular issue of session musicians who were in a recording studio in the 1950s or 1960s. There is a wider principle at stake. Why is the information profession spending so much time and effort on responding to consultation to British law if IP needs to be sorted at a Europe-wide level? The McCreevy speech suggests it’s time for proper consultation on a thorough review of IP European law.