Reenvio esta importante información.

Cordiales saludos
Alicia Ocaso
URUGUAY

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sinikka Sipilä <sinikka.sipila@...>
Date: 14-may-2008 9:47
Subject: [IFLA-L] Finnish libraries oppose the extension of the term of copyright of sound recordings from 50 to 95 years
To: ifla-l@...


Dear colleagues in libraries and library associations,

for your information, and especially to the European library professionals,
libraries and library associations, the stand by The National Library of
Finland and The Finnish Library Association opposing the extension of the
term of copyright of the sound recordings from 50 years to 95 years in
European Union.

In the USA the extension is already in force. In Europe the EU's Internal
Market Commissioner Charles McCreevy has proposed an extension of the
copyright protection of sound recordings from the present 50 years to 95
years. It is important that library associations react and oppose this
proposal as early as possible through their representatives in the European
Commission and in the European Parliament. This stand has been send to the
Finnish Members of the European Parliament and many of them have already
answered they will oppose this proposal when it comes to the EU Parliament.
There has already earlier been available a petition launched by Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF)  Europe ja Open Rights Group (ORG)
http://www.soundcopyright.eu/petition. Over 10 000 people have already
signed it. Information on this issue was also published on the IFLA-L on the
14th of April 2008 by Mark Perkins: [IFLA-L] Petition against EU extension
of sound recordings copyright.

This is not only a European or American issue but can be spread all over the
world. This stand can be freely used as a model by all library associations,
libraries or library professionals interested to oppose this proposal.



THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF FINLAND AND THE FINNISH LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OPPOSE
THE EXTENSION OF THE TERM OF COPYRIGHT


EU's Internal Market Commissioner Charles McCreevy has proposed an extension
of the copyright protection of sound recordings from the present 50 years to
95 years, to give performers equal protection with composers. Unless the
term of protection is extended, many European performers will soon lose
income from recordings they made in the late 1950s and the early 1960s, says
McCreevy. A detailed proposal has not yet been published, but as the
Commissioner has announced that he aims to move quickly, the undersigned
wish to take a stand on the proposal on the basis of information currently
available.

1.      The copyright protection of performers cannot be equated with the
protection of composers and other authors. Most compositions have only one
or two authors; the term of protection is counted from the death of the
longest-living author. Rights in sound recordings belong jointly to the
record company and performers participating in recordings, sometimes more
than a hundred of them. Companies do not have a year of death. Extending the
term of protection to 95 years would inevitably lead to situations where
some sound recordings would be protected longer than the works recorded,
resulting in new demands for extended protection.

It is true that a small number of living performers will lose income from
the broadcasting of their recordings when the present term expires. However,
in Finland, record producers and performing artists did not have any
copyright protection until 1961. For a long time, the term of protection was
25 years. This state of affairs was well known to all parties, when
recordings were made. The protection of performers and producers has already
been extended retroactively several times; no other professional group has
ever received such special treatment.

2.      Commissioner McCreevy has not published any estimates of the additional
income which performers would gain from the extension. 50-year old records
are only broadcast infrequently, 95-year old records almost never. For most
performers and their estates, the extra income would only be a few euros
annually, if anything. The damage caused by the extension would be much
larger than the benefits.

3.      The extension of the copyright term has previously been proposed in the
EU on the basis of the competitiveness of the European recording industry.
It was claimed that European record industry would be less competitive than
the US industry, which already has 95-year protection. In Britain, the
Gowers report convincingly proved that such claims were false. If anything,
the shorter term makes European record industry more competitive.

In the United States, there have been studies of the damage caused by
excessively long protection. In practice record companies have not been
interested in marketing recordings which are more than 50 years old, because
demand for them is marginal. Neither have they been willing to license them
to other companies. As a result, in the USA most recordings which are more
than 50 years old are available for educational and research purposes only
as European reissues. If the proposed extension goes through, the
availability of historical recordings will dramatically decrease in Europe,
too.

4.      The extension of the term of protection would not only apply to
commercially published recordings. It would apply to all sound recordings,
including broadcasts, private recordings and recordings made for research
purposes. Without the permission of the rights owners, protected recordings
cannot be used for any purposes. For instance, if an archive receives a home
recording made in the 1950s, it would not be able to make a digital
preservation copy without the permission of the rights owners, who may be
unknown.

5.      The extension of the term of copyright would eventually create a huge
"orphan works" problem. Ninety-year old recordings could not be used for any
purpose without the permission of the rights owners, but in many cases it
would be impossible to identify them. In the course of time, many record
companies will change owners, cease operations or go bankrupt. Even the
states where they once operated may cease to exist. The performers die and
the rights pass to second and third generations. Because most recordings
have little economic value after such a long period, the changes will not be
documented anywhere.

6.      The extension of the term of copyright would endanger the pioneering work
of the Finnish National Library in making historical recordings accessible
to the public. The National Library is legally responsible for the
preservation of national cultural heritage and providing related information
services. The National Library has digitised in the RAITA database a major
part of public domain Finnish sound recordings. The proposed extension would
make this task much more difficult. If the extension is made retroactively,
most of the materials would have to be closed for the public.

7.      In the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, copyright and access
are seen as two rights of equal importance. The extension will result in
unreasonable restrictions to the freedom of information, unless proper
balances are created. The harmful consequences of the extension to libraries
and archives are well documented, while the there are no studies of the
alleged benefits. As the Gowers report noted, it will be possible to extend
the term later on, if this proves necessary, but it will be very difficult
to shorten it, if it has proven excessive.


Helsinki 1.4.2008

Kai Ekholm (Mr.)
Director of the National Library of Finland

Markku Laukkanen (Mr.)
Member of the Finnish Parliament
President of the Finnish Library Association


*************************************************
Sinikka Sipilae (Ms,)
Chair of IFLA MALS SC
Member of IFLA Governing Board (co-opted)
Secretary General
Finnish Library Association
Runeberginkatu 15 A 23
00100 Helsinki, Finland
tel.      +358-9-6221 399
mobile +358-400-659 363
email::  sinikka.sipila@...
http://suomenkirjastoseura.fi
****************************************
New Finnish Public Libraries http://libraries.fla.fi
Finnish Library Journal 100 years 1908-2008
Finnish Library Association 100 years 1910-2010



--
Lic. Alicia Ocaso
URUGUAY