IFPI welcomes Parliamentary Report on intellectual property

• Select Committee calls for extended copyright term
• Report advocates ISPs take more action against piracy

London, 16th May 2007

IFPI, representing the recording industry worldwide, today warmly welcomed the recommendation by the UK’s Parliamentary Culture, Media and Sports Committee that copyright term for recording artists should be extended and that Internet Service Providers and search-based businesses should do more to discourage piracy.

The report, published today under the Committee Chairmanship of John Whittingdale, MP, repudiates the outcome of the review of copyright term by Andrew Gowers at the end of 2006 for focusing only on economic analysis rather than the moral rights of creators.

It concludes that the Government “should press the European Commission to bring forward proposals for an extension of copyright term for sound recordings to at least 70 years, to provide reasonable certainty that an artist will be able to derive benefit from a recording through his or her lifetime.”

IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said: “The Select Committee has given a ringing endorsement for fair treatment of the UK music industry. It has backed two simple principles – that UK performers must get a term of copyright protection comparable to composers, and that Britain must not be left with weaker copyright protection than its international partners. The Gowers report was far too long on economic theory and far too short on fairness to British copyright holders. The UK Select Committee’s findings are totally right for Britain’s creative industries, and they send a clear strong message to the Government and to the European Union. We are also pleased that the Committee recognised that Internet Service Providers and search-based businesses should do more to discourage piracy, a position that we have been advocating for some time."

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The Select Committee’s findings, announced today in the Report on “New Media and the Creative Industries”, agree that the UK government should press the EU for an extension of copyright term on sound recordings, to at least 70 years.
2. The Gowers Review, published in December 2006, recommended that copyright term for sound recordings remain at 50 years.
3. The European Commission is currently reviewing the EU Term of Protection Directive. Performers and producers are calling on the Commission to end the discrimination between the EU and the U.S. by proposing an extension of term of protection in Europe to match the 95 years’ protection provided by the U.S. The Commission is expected to come forward with a proposal in the second half of 2007.
4. Many other countries today have a much longer term than in the UK – for example, the U.S. which extended term of protection to 95 years with the Sonny Bono Act passed in 1998. Other countries with longer term than the EU include: Australia (70), Singapore (70), Mexico (75), Chile (70), Brazil (70), Turkey (70) and India (60).