On 1 January 2005, Elvis Presley’s That’s All Right
— a 50-year-old tune currently enjoying the #3 chart spot in Great Britain — will enter the public domain. Anyone will be able to release it without paying royalties to the owners of the master or the performer’s heirs. BMG will start losing a significant piece of its catalogue income in Europe. As That’s All Right
is being hailed by some as the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll, the implications are that every year after 2005, more recordings that defined the genre will fall into public domain
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Braingasm
22 September 2004 at 3.23 pm
The demand to extend copyright on sound recordings, so that the artists and their heirs can continue to collect royalties, is ridiculous. The Beatles have made plenty of money out of their songs. Are they going to be collecting social security unless they get the legislation? Let living artists have access to heritage material so they can do new arrangements, mixes etc without sharing royalties.
Braingasm