Bob Dylan and the Beatles have both been in the Copyright news recently.  This time it’s not about infringement wars but rather copyright expiry.
 

Under European Copyright law, the copyright period in a sound recording lasts 50 years which means at this point, i.e. sound recordings made prior to 1963, they then enter the public domain and can be reproduced without owing a stitch to the owner of the sound recording.  For the year of 1962, this has recently happened to the Beatle’s ‘Love me do’ in which the copyright in the recorded track lapsed at the start of 2013.  The same is true of Dylan’s 1962 first album, inspirationally titled ‘Bob Dylan,’ but back to Bob later. This means that these recordings are now in the public domain and you can freely re-issue them as a vinyl flexidisc taped to the side of a packet of cornflakes, if you so wish, without having to pay anything to the owner of the copyright of the recording (notably record companies).    Flexi-what? (look it up kids!)

The copyright in the actual written song however still in the case of ‘Love me do’ belongs to Lennon and McCartney and lasts the life of the author + 70 years after the author’s death.

Yes you are reading correctly – 2 versions of copyright pertain: copyright in the written song and copyright in the recorded or published (printed) version.

In the not too distant past, UK 1960s pop icon Sir Cliff Richard (look him up kids!) helped champion the move to extend the duration of recorded copyright - arguing the fact that many artists and session musicians (which still happened to be alive and hadn’t overdosed/drowned in swimming pools/other) still made a living from the royalties.

The EU, in its infinite and wonderful wisdom, therefore decided at the end of 2012 to extend the period of copyright in recorded sound by 20 years to the threshold of 70 years (this period is 95 years in the US).  This whole EU extended copyright stuff, however, now needs to be ratified by the EU council (zzzz….) and is expected to be signed into being around November 2013.  So whilst recorded tracks prior to 1963 have already fallen into the public domain in the EU - year on year post this, recorded tracks will now get a stay of execution for another 20 years. So the 1976 classic ‘don’t fear the reaper’  can rest in peace until 2046.

Right, so what does this all mean?  Well, pretty much that just some aging rock musicians and record companies will still get some cash through their retirement from continued record sales. But actually, and probably most importantly, record companies will still be able to use a % of the proceeds of their back catalogue to fund new artists.  For stuff which has already fallen into the public domain – this is now open to being freely released by any label.

Oh yes back to Dylan...

I've been invited a number of times now to judge on both the Open Mic UK and Live and Unsigned music competitions, something that I've really enjoyed doing. At my last judging day for Open Mic regional finals in Bedford I was asked for my tips for any acts about to come on stage. I only had time to suggest one tip, which prompted me to write this post so I could share a few more nuggets of insight from the judges table that I've picked up over the past few months.

Whether its trekking up the Himalayas or dangling your feet in the pool somewhere on the French Riviera, watching the clock slowly tick past during long delays in airport lounges, stuck in a motel room flicking through dull TV channels or simply looking to pass the time on a long distance greyhound coach or train journey – for many musicians the ability to travel with your instrument (and possibly even play it en route) is a very cool must/wanna have.

Whilst there still are some of us who are quite happy to strap a guitar to our back, like the iconic images of Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, and wander off down the highway to seek our destiny (or a quick weekend break in Skegness), the modern reality of crammed transport with limited luggage space and being confronted with the comment of '...a musical instrument you say?', 'I am sorry Sir/Madam – that will cost you $1000 dollars extra to take on board, oh, and watch our baggage handlers as they can be a bit heavy handed...'  - kind of takes that wanting and romance out of it all. 

So what is the answer for a modern musician who literally can't be without their instrument on their travels?  We take a look at the top 5 instruments that we think have been designed for traveling musician in mind. Fasten your seat belts, we're ready for take off!

Future Copyright are delighted to be supporting the British Blues Awards, and indeed the wider Blues Community, through sponsorship of the 'drums' category of the 2012 Awards. Further information about the awards, including the voting process, can be found at www.britishbluesawards.com. 

Good luck to all the nominees from Future Copyright.

 

We're not just content with protecting your work the easy way with our fully backed up servers and easy to use copyright system. Our new office space in sunny Hove, UK even has bank vault style combination locks on the doors!!

 

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Future Copyright/London Animation Club Compeition Winners announced.

Copyright Girl's first cartoon story is online now! Check it out via her facebook page.

In this cartoon series, Copyright Girl will be helping different kinds of creative artists to protect their work.

Future Copyright are now sponsoring the Social Media Whitenoise podcast brought to you by Brighton's very own Andy White (@DoctorPod) and Nik Butler (@loudmouthman). Listen to the latest episode here.

Zoe just joined ICMP this year and has just started a new band (un-named yet) and is in need of rehearsal time and space - so the £50 studio voucher she has just won is both well received and timely.

Building on the partnerships that Future Copyright has with media colleges such as SAE London and the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, the company have been actively seeking other partners to work with in the graduate media education area - and our latest partnership is with Live and Unsigned, the X-Factor style competition for UK bands.

Future Copyright has announced a brand new animation competition open exclusively to London Animation Club members.

3-D Spooktakular marks 9th screening for Horror Film Competition in Margate

(By Ema Rush)

From the shadows around the Theatre Royal Margate, on a particularly dark and forbidding Saturday night (29/10/11), a ghostly hoard of vampires, witches and the assembled undead arrived. They had converged in Margate from every shadowy murky corner of England, to gorge themselves on the dark fruits of the filmmakers’ imaginations, to gasp with horror and shriek with fear. With all the courage the rest of the intrepid audience could muster, they filed into the historic theatre as the Old Town clock struck seven…

Incredibly, the Two Days Later Short Horror Film Competition, sponsored by Future Copyright, marked its 9th anniversary with this year’s shortlisted finalists’ evening film screening. The competition premise is that films must be made in two days. They can be filmed on any medium, including a mobile phone, so they are truly accessible to all. And this year really was a corker. The film industry panel of 6 judges (who include actor Andy Nyman, screen writer James Moran and film critic Kim Newman) unanimously considered this year to be the best and scariest crop ever!

Our data center will be performing an upgrade to a more reliable and up to date backup power system. This will require our servers to be shut down gracefully and rebooted on the new circuit. This is being done to ensure continued availability of our website in the event of a power failure. You data and files will not be affected in any way.

This will impact the site on the following dates:
Saturday 29th October 2011 7pm to 5am EST (midnight to 9am GMT)
Sunday 30th October 2011 7pm to 5am EST (midnight to 9am GMT)

Expected Downtime: approx 60 minutes

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions please feel free to contact support@futurecopyright.com

Come along and see us at the Brighton & Hove Business Show 2011 on Thursday 27th October!

In the first of our "Did You Know?" series of posts we're starting with one of the questions we're asked most often: What is copyright?

Why do Brit School and so many other media schools offer such poor quality copyright protection education for this new digital media age?

Hello there, and welcome to our new blog covering all Future Copyright news, views and musings!

Come back soon for the latest posts where you can read all about copyright events, law changes, geeky technical stuff and our special Did you Know? series.