The BBC has an interesting article that points out: "In 2013, copyright in the sound recording of the Beatles' first album expires, as it will for recordings from Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and other performers of the same period."
No wonder the music industry is in a panic. If it can't keep reselling old 60s songs, where's it going to make so much easy money?
The article by Kay Withers, a Research Fellow on the Digital Society & Media team at the Institute for Public Policy Research, says:
But it is not actually the case that the artist will necessarily lose out. While copyright in the sound recording itself may be due to expire, copyright in the original work belonging to the songwriter lasts for the length of their lives plus 70 years.
For each sale of a Beatles recording, the owner of the copyright in the original work will continue to receive payment until this expires many years from now.
What will disappear is the right of individual record companies to maintain a monopoly on release of certain recordings. And this is what worries them.
Comment: Luckily there's still time for another three rounds of re-issues, remasterings, recompilations, repackagings, remixes, and completist box sets that include the original floor sweepings.....
