Copyright - how long is too long?
For those who create, and those who make make their money from creative endeavours (surprisingly often not the same people), copyright is a contentious issue. There are not many people who would wish to see the end of the principle of copyright (pretty well all open sourcei licences for example rely on the principle), but there are many arguments about how long copyright should be granted.
Copyrights, like patents, are a deal between creators and society. The creator is granted a (theoretically) time limited monopoly to commercially exploit their creation, with the understanding that after this time their creation will join our rich cultural history to inspire, inform and generally give a leg up to those creators who come next. The ultimate aim is that there will be a constant streami of 'classic' work becoming available for development and re-interpretation.
This deal breaks down if the length of time that works and other innovations are protected for keeps getting extended. The pressure to do this comes particularly from large corporations whose income is based on creative work they have acquired and continue to benefit from, often long after the original creator is dead and gone. It is no secret that the last major extension of copyright in the US was driven by the Disney Corporation when the copyright on Mickey Mouse was due to expire.
Recommendation 3 of the Gower's Report commissioned by the UK government suggest that the present 50 year copyright term for sound recordings in the EU should not be extended, although major recording labels are pushing for the period to be extended. A petition has been set up for those wishing to oppose such an extension. Some would wish to take it even further and bring in an across the board reduction in copyright to 20 years. The chances of that happening seem slim, and there are those who warn of unexpected side effects. As pointed out above open source software relies on copyright to prevent proprietaryi companies appropriating older free software for their own ends without meeting the requirements of openness.
The UK Intellectual Property office (Patent Office as was) has published a consultation paper on the Gower's Report, asking for responses by April 8th.
