this is not about securing revenue for artists

this is about securing revenue for the media cartels

anybody really believe the current media cartels will exist in 10 years time?

No, copyright will continue to be extended — again and again and again — as long as there is still money to be extracted from old works.</i> — 99

My general cynicism suggests this comment probably hit the nail on the head.

Look at the list of ‘for’ & ‘against’. LOL, how can that not be totally obvious? Nothing new here, all about money and who stands to gain it as usual.

Hah, that’s such an apathetic useless view.

@ Anonymous 15 :

“Most of the people who will vote this in will have NO FINANCIAL GAIN from this bill.”

-> directly on top 5 of “2008 internet’s funniest comments”"

Jesus, what is the point in commenting if you havent got a clue about the way politics works. The “they’re selfish money grabbing power-hungry wankers” argument is really only fit for use by neanderthals. Most MEPs will not gain financially from passing this bill. It might suit your paranoid delusions to believe every single politician is corrupt, but its frankly BULLSHIT.

Nice try, but its either the sensible way or the torrent way. Period.

Please don’t take that sentence the wrong way… this nearly only applies to companies and politicians, not the the usual european…

(Since I am one myself, and all else than that, I really dislike this being said generally about europeans, since it sounds like it applies to everyone…)

“Most of the people who will vote this in will have NO FINANCIAL GAIN from this bill.”

-> directly on top 5 of “2008 internet’s funniest comments”

The planet would be better off if EU commissioner McCreevy hanged himself, or sucked on a shotgun. I don’t care as long as he doesn’t see the sun again.

As for elderly session musicians: (a) I thought session work was work-for-hire where you got paid once and (b) aren’t most EU countries wellfare socialist states? Why do they need 45 years of money from recordings when they have state pensions? Will this reduce the tax burden in EU countries?

But were in the age of the internet, where it cost near-to-nothing to eternally host a mp3 file for commerical sale and no Record Company wants to ever give up their rights!

If you truely want to help artists, make it so they hold the copywrite and lease that right to the Record Companies for no more than a year at a time.

Completely incorrect.

Once protection has ended, performers no longer receive royalties.

They can still receive money from fans. Or any other means which may be indirectly related to their music.

And now an organisation run by authoritarian bureaucrats who’s sole job is to think up retarded bills.

France & Netherlands voted “NO” for the EU when they had thier referendum. What did they do? Change the constitution so the people didnt have a vote anymore!

Ireland anyone? They voted “NO” so u think this is it? Hahaha, yeah right, there will be ANOTHER vote & and another until the EU get the VOTE they want.

Oh loooooooooook at the UK, the We WILL be joining the EU even tho we had a HIGH court case still on-going!

EU Sux Balls.

Now watch this: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/ and then tell me i’m paranoid.

Calling them greedy is like blaming the judge in most of the torrent shut-down cases, if the case for the opposition is not made well, the opposition will ALWAYS LOSE.

Instead of just bitching here, go out and write to your MEPs. This bill has been very cleverly presented as something that looks like no-one loses, and unless we encourage them not to, MEPs will vote accordingly.

The lazy bastards can do the same as everyone else – when you get paid put part of it away in a pension plan.

Patents are only 20 years for FFS on investments than can cost billions !

I thought it was American not European! :-)

Did anyone really believe that the recordings of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and other classic artists from the ’60s would ever be allowed to lapse into the public domain?

No, copyright will continue to be extended — again and again and again — as long as there is still money to be extracted from old works.

The “use it or lose it” provisions are meaningless because in the digital age, all the back catalogs of music ever recorded can easily be made available over the internet for virtually no cost.

Oh, and all this talk about needing longer copyrights to support performers who have supposedly not had a job in over 50 years is pure BULLSHIT. The labels, not the artists, own the copyright. The artists, at best, only get a few pennies on the dollar of the royalties paid to the record companies. That’s assuming that they get paid at all – these companies are legendary for their gall at cheating artists out of everything they earned.

If only people actually WANTED freedom.