Effect of Copyright Extension on music 1941-1961

[AHP]

I wonder if anyone with any legal knowledge (or anyone else) knows the answer to this one. Copyright on recordings in the EU was extended from 50 to 70 years in 2011. The 50-year copyright allowed the reissue of lots of great music in cheap budget sets by companies like Membran and RealGoneJazz, you know, all those "Eight Classic Albums" sets on amazon for under a tenner.

The rights or wrongs of copyright extension aside for a moment, does anyone know what will happen to those recordings that were public domain before 2011, but now aren't (i.e. anything recorded between 1943 and 1961)?

Does copyright get re-extended over them, making it illegal to continue to resell them unless you own the rights (thus making it illegal to sell (almost) all these budget sets) - or the stuff that's already public domain remain so, effectively creating a kind of copyright event horizon at 1961, at least for the next 20 years? This is particularly relevant to Jazz, because of course the period 1943-61 contains much of the most important recordings in the music.

[jcam_44]

My copyright law is about 3 years rusty but if I remember correctly the recordings should go back under copyright law, but if it a release is in production before the law was changed then they are allowed to continue. This is referring to US law though when it changed. I know the rest of the world is different.

[Tenorman]

As part of the new act a 3? year moratorium was granted to those who had started a re-issue project prior to the act to complete the project. After the date that the act was voted into law, all recorded works less than 70 years old, are now in copyright. The moratorium applies to the company doing the project not to the work itself

[AHP]

Thanks Tenorman. I guess this means that all these cheap European reissues will dissapear over the next few years.

[Tenorman]

Quite possibly but depending on your tastes that still leaves up to 1943 out of copyright for recorded works