Extending Pop Music Copyrights to 100 years in UK

[BJ_M]

"According to TimesOnLine, the UK is considering doubling the copyright term for popular music to 100 years. That means the Beatles' "Love Me Do" and "Please Please Me," scheduled to to go into the public domain in 2013, would earn royalties for record companies until 2063."

btw - it is already 90 years now in the USA and the UK is just following the same path ..

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1641428,00.html

[lordsmurf]

Copyrights are now so long the people that would care to enjoy the content will be dead by the time it comes into public domain. The last 25+ years for such material will surely be profitless and nobody will give a rat's ass when it is available. This is pathetic because so much material is unused by the holders, it is therefore lost to time.

Such laws should surely come with "forfeit" exemptions, the time at which a company loses a property for not exercising it. And the wording should not allow for pathetic loopholes like releasing 1 CD with 1 song to a village in Ethiopia qualifying as "exercise".

I always thought laws were about protecting people. How does this protect "the people". Seems to me it's a draconian way to keep peons in check. Medieval times anybody?