The Stage

Culture secretary backs copyright extension for performers

Published Friday 12 December 2008 at 12:45 by Alistair Smith

Culture secretary Andy Burnham has, for the first time, endorsed the principle of extending the term of copyright protection for performers on sound recordings from its current limit of 50 years.

Campaigners, including Cliff Richard, have urged the government to extend the amount of time musicians can receive royalties from the performance of their work. Richard - whose first song was recorded in 1958 - will begin to lose copyright protection on some of his music from this year, while the Beatles’ surviving members will be in the same situation from 2012.

Until now, the government has said that there is no economic justification for the extension to 95 years for performers - the amount of time for which music writers are currently covered.

However, speaking at the UK Music Creators’ Conference this week, Burnham said: “Copyright underpins the music business - and all our creative industries - and the right response when it’s put under pressure is not to abandon a system as outdated, but to make it work better.

“There is a moral case for performers benefiting from their work throughout their entire lifetime. That is why I have been working with John Denham, my opposite number in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, to consider the arguments for an extension of copyright term for performers from the current 50 years. An extension to match more closely a performer’s expected lifetime, perhaps something like 70 years, for example, given that most people make their best work in their twenties and thirties.”

The move has been welcomed “wholeheartedly” by the Musicians’ Union.

Horace Trubridge, MU assistant general secretary, said: “We are delighted that the government has today demonstrated its clear support for the performer community. The MU has always argued that term of protection should not run out during a performer’s lifetime, and we would support any proposal that supported this principle and was of direct benefit to performers.”