In the UK, copyright lasts for a period of 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies. If the music originates from the outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), the copyright in its country of origin, if this doesn’t exceed 70 years.
There are several types of Copyright Relevant to Music and here are the following:
Intellectual copyright is protection for anything you create that stops others using it unless they have your permission. Copyright is established as soon as you create any of the following things; original literature, drama, music, art and photography, original software, web content and databases, sound, music, film and television recordings, broadcasts and the layout of published music, drama and written works.
Your work be marked with the proper copyright symbol (©), it is however not required and does not affect the state of the copyright you have on something. Copyright lasts from when it is created until the death of the creator plus varying lengths after the creator’s death depending on what type of art it is. For written, dramatic, musical and artistic work this is 70 years, for sound and music recordings this is 70 years after the first publishing, for films this is 70 years after the death of the director, screenplay author and composer, for broadcasts this is 50 years after the first broadcast and 25 years from the first publishing of layouts for written, dramatic or musical works.
By having copyright for something you now have prevention from; people stealing and copying your work, selling or otherwise distributing it, renting out copies of it, performing your work (in public), adapting your work and putting it online. If you own copyright you have the right to sell it and can register the copyright with a collecting body who will collect any royalties for you and agree on terms for its use on your behalf. You can sell or transfer your copyright by signing an agreement.
Sound recording copyright is represented by the ℗ symbol. It is used to show copyright for a sound recording. The ‘P’ stands for phonogram, this word is used to refer to sound recordings. It would contain the symbol, the year the sound recording was first published and some way of identifying the owner of the copyright. Copyright in sound recording usually is owned by the record producer. Like with intellectual copyright, sound recording copyright has specific rules to it regarding how long it lasts, this is dependent on whether or not it has been published or communicated in some way (such as radio or internet) to the public.
If a recording is not communicated to the public in anyway, nor published, the copyright will last for 50 years. If within 50 years of its initial creation it is published then the copyright lasts 70 years from the year it was first published. If within 50 years of its initial creation it is communicated to the public but not published the copyright will last for 70 years of when it’s first communicated. If it is then published at a later date the copyright will last for 70 years from when it’s first published.
Performer’s copyright refers to the rights of the performer within sound recording copyright. If a recording is not communicated to the public or published then the performers copyright lasts 50 years from when it was first made. To be eligible for performers copyright the performer must be a qualifying individual or perform in a qualifying country. If someone makes a copy of a performers performance without the relevant permissions then they are infringing the performers rights.
Digital Rights Management is the term for the type of technology that allows the rights owners the ability to set (and enforce) terms to which other people can use their intellectual property. Usually these rights owners would be copyright-holding companies such as music, film or software publishers. The way DRM works is by encrypting a file and then having an authentication system to unlock said file. DMR is most commonly used for the protection of copying. This level of technology gives reassurance to copyright holders that their works will not be pirated.
Piracy is intentional infringement of copyright on a commercial scale. In the 1990s compact disc piracy became global due to technology making duplication of CDs easier coming out. Piracy these days involves mp3s being distributed on sites like piratebay and limewire, often at a lower audio quality than if the music was actually purchased from a respective distribution company.
Due to modern technology making piracy so easy this is why it is increased so significantly. It is easy for someone who has paid for a piece of music to simply upload the file to a pirating site for others to download. Due to the large amount of people who do it, it is also hard for the government to police music (and any other media) pirating it’s done on such a large scale. It is still illegal though and if caught pirating material you could be fined up to £150,000 for each individual file as well as up to 5 years in jail. This doesn’t deter a lot of people though due to it being so hard to catch people.
Illegal downloading is when someone downloads a piece of music illegally without paying for it, essentially you’re infringing the copyright of the person(s) music you download.
Ellie Thornton Music 