Rich Fiscus
23 Jan 2008 23:46
The E.U.'s CULT committee, responsible for on helping shape EU policy on issues related to culture and education, has decided not to include amendments drafted by the international recording industry trade association IFPI in the final draft on their report on Cultural Industries. The report is intended for adoption by the European Parliament as EU policy.
As we reported last December, the IFPI was lobbying to have language inserted that would require ISPs to monitor subscriber traffic for copyright violation and actively Block websites the organization deems not in compliance with legal licensing practices. These sites primarily operate out of countries like Russia, where the international recording industry has less sway than the owners of such sites as AllOfMP3.com.
Another amendment which didn't make the cut would have extended copyright terms, purportedly with the intention of extending the period of time during which song writers could profit from their works. Critics have pointed out that only the most successful songs continue to generated enough revenue for the author to receive a benefit worth codifying in law, but record labels who can continue to distribute and license these works would see far more financial gain from such a change.