I mentioned in an earlier blog post that the European Union has recently made amendments to copyright law. The most controversial amendment was undoubtedly the increase in the duration of copyright from 50 to 70 years. There is countless commentary on the possible implication of these changes available in journal articles and blog posts around the web. Some authors think that it is a necessary change, while others argue that the change is taking a step in the wrong direction. I’m hesitant of putting my thoughts & feelings on the matter out there because I feel like there is a lot of policy considerations that I haven’t taken into account.
Whatever your feelings on the recent changes are – they may be the reasons behind a rather surprising announcement by Apple records (in no way affiliated with the tech company). Apple has announced that it will make 59 never-before-released tracks by the Beatles available to the public next week. The announcement seemingly comes out of nowhere, until one recognises that the recent increase in the duration of copyright applies only to tracks which have been made available to the public. This means, that in order to hold onto the rights to the songs for a bit longer, they had to make it available to the public.
It should be mentioned that all of the above is pure speculation, Apple has not gone on record to say why they have decided now to release the songs. According to the Guardian, when asked about the issue they simply replied: “no comment”.
Source:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/12/beatles-copyright-apple-release-tracks
