The Index for Free Expression has a great article on the proposal to extend the European copyright on performaces for another 20 years, and the disaster this presents for the freedom of expression:

Faced for the first time with losing significant back catalogue profits, the industry is lobbying to change the law. The industry describes the law as a “loophole”. In fact it is anything but.

For every one recording that has the power to reach number three in the commercial charts fifty years after its original release, there are hundreds if not thousands of tracks that do not.

Although these recordings no longer have any commercial value to their rights holders, they are of tremendous value in terms of our cultural heritage. But the mechanisms of copyright law mean that, should the European Parliament choose to heed the music industry, keeping Elvis out of the public domain for a further 45 years or even more, the King will drag down with him this huge body of commercially worthless but culturally significant work.

Link

(Thanks, Becky!) [Boing Boing]