The EU has extended the copyright terms for music to 70 years from the current 50 years, just months before the first Beatles albums would have entered the public domain.
Critics, most notably the Open Rights Group (via TF) were majorly disappointed by the decision:
There were some notable voters against the plan, including the Belgian, Czech, Dutch, Luxembourg, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish delegations.
Research showed that around 90% of the cash windfall from copyright levies will fall into the hands of record labels. Despite the rhetoric, small artists will gain very little from this, while our cultural heritage takes a massive blow by denying us full access to these recordings for another generation.
There were some notable voters against the plan, including the Belgian, Czech, Dutch, Luxembourg, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish delegations.
